1991-07-01
====== PREAMBLE ======
We, the people of North Dakota, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of civil
and religious liberty, do ordain and establish this Constitution.
====== ARTICLE I. Declaration of Rights. ======
=== Section 1. ===
All individuals are by nature equally free and independent and have
certain inalienable rights, among which are those of enjoying and
defending life and liberty; acquiring, possessing and protecting
property and reputation; pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness;
and to keep and bear arms for the defense of their person, family,
property, and the state, and for lawful hunting, recreational, and other
lawful purposes, which shall not be infringed.
[{{laws:1985-sl-ima.pdf|Amended Nov. 6, 1984}} (S.L. 1985, ch. 702)]
=== Section 2. ===
All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted
for the protection, security and benefit of the people, and they have a
right to alter or reform the same whenever the public good may require.
=== Section 3. ===
The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship,
without discrimination or preference shall be forever guaranteed in this
state, and no person shall be rendered incompetent to be a witness or
juror on account of his opinion on matters of religious belief; but the
liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be so construed as to
excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify practices inconsistent with
the peace or safety of this state.
=== Section 4. ===
Every man may freely write, speak and publish his opinions on all
subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that privilege. In all
civil and criminal trials for libel the truth may be given in evidence,
and shall be a sufficient defense when the matter is published with good
motives and for justifiable ends; and the jury shall have the same power
of giving a general verdict as in other cases; and in all indictments or
informations for libels the jury shall have the right to determine the
law and the facts under the direction of the court as in other cases.
=== Section 5. ===
The citizens have a right, in a peaceable manner, to assemble together
for the common good, and to apply to those invested with the powers of
government for the redress of grievances, or for other proper purposes,
by petition, address or remonstrance.
=== Section 6. ===
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, unless for the punishment of
crime, shall ever be tolerated in this state.
=== Section 7. ===
Every citizen of this state shall be free to obtain employment wherever
possible, and any person, corporation, or agent thereof, maliciously
interfering or hindering in any way, any citizen from obtaining or
enjoying employment already obtained, from any other corporation or
person, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.
=== Section 8. ===
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers
and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be
violated; and no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause, supported
by oath or affirmation, particularly describing the place to be searched
and the persons and things to be seized.
=== Section 9. ===
All courts shall be open, and every man for any injury done him in his
lands, goods, person or reputation shall have remedy by due process of
law, and right and justice administered without sale, denial or delay.
Suits may be brought against the state in such manner, in such courts,
and in such cases, as the legislative assembly may, by law, direct.
=== Section 10. ===
Until otherwise provided by law, no person shall, for a felony, be
proceeded against criminally, otherwise than by indictment, except in
cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia when in
actual service in time of war or public danger. In all other cases,
offenses shall be prosecuted criminally by indictment or information.
The legislative assembly may change, regulate or abolish the grand jury
system.
=== Section 11. ===
All persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, unless for capital
offenses when the proof is evident or the presumption great. Excessive
bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor shall cruel
or unusual punishments be inflicted. Witnesses shall not be unreasonably
detained, nor be confined in any room where criminals are actually
imprisoned.
=== Section 12. ===
In criminal prosecutions in any court whatever, the party accused shall
have the right to a speedy and public trial; to have the process of the
court to compel the attendance of witnesses in his behalf; and to appear
and defend in person and with counsel. No person shall be twice put in
jeopardy for the same offense, nor be compelled in any criminal case to
be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty or
property without due process of law.
=== Section 13. ===
The right of trial by jury shall be secured to all, and remain
inviolate. A person accused of a crime for which he may be confined for
a period of more than one year has the right of trial by a jury of
twelve. The legislative assembly may determine the size of the jury for
all other cases, provided that the jury consists of at least six
members. All verdicts must be unanimous.
[Amended Sep. 3, 1974 ([[https://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1975/pdf/CAA.pdf|S.L. 1975, ch. 603]])]
=== Section 14. ===
The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended
unless, when in case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may
require.
=== Section 15. ===
No person shall be imprisoned for debt unless upon refusal to deliver up
his estate for the benefit of his creditors, in such manner as shall be
prescribed by law; or in cases of tort; or where there is strong
presumption of fraud.
=== Section 16. ===
Private property shall not be taken or damaged for public use without
just compensation having been first made to, or paid into court for the
owner, unless the owner chooses to accept annual payments as may be
provided for by law. No right of way shall be appropriated to the use of
any corporation until full compensation therefor be first made in money
or ascertained and paid into court for the owner, unless the owner
chooses annual payments as may be provided by law, irrespective of any
benefit from any improvement proposed by such corporation. Compensation
shall be ascertained by a jury, unless a jury be waived. When the state
or any of its departments, agencies or political subdivisions seeks to
acquire right of way, it may take possession upon making an offer to
purchase and by depositing the amount of such offer with the clerk of
the district court of the county wherein the right of way is located.
The clerk shall immediately notify the owner of such deposit. The owner
may thereupon appeal to the court in the manner provided by law, and may
have a jury trial, unless a jury be waived, to determine the damages,
which damages the owner may choose to accept in annual payments as may
be provided for by law. Annual payments shall not be subject to
escalator clauses but may be supplemented by interest earned.
[Amended Jun. 26, 1956]
[Amended Nov. 2, 1982]
=== Section 17. ===
Treason against the state shall consist only in levying war against it,
adhering to its enemies or giving them aid and comfort. No person shall
be convicted of treason unless on the evidence of two witnesses to the
same overt act, or confession in open court.
=== Section 18. ===
No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the
obligations of contracts shall ever be passed.
=== Section 19. ===
The military shall be subordinate to the civil power. No standing army
shall be maintained by this state in time of peace, and no soldiers
shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent
of the owner; nor in time of war, except in the manner prescribed by
law.
=== Section 20. ===
To guard against transgressions of the high powers which we have
delegated, we declare that everything in this article is excepted out of
the general powers of government and shall forever remain inviolate.
=== Section 21. ===
No special privileges or immunities shall ever be granted which may not
be altered, revoked or repealed by the legislative assembly; nor shall
any citizen or class of citizens be granted privileges or immunities
which upon the same terms shall not be granted to all citizens.
=== Section 22. ===
All laws of a general nature shall have a uniform operation.
=== Section 23. ===
The state of North Dakota is an inseparable part of the American union
and the Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the
land.
=== Section 24. ===
The provisions of this constitution are mandatory and prohibitory
unless, by express words, they are declared to be otherwise.
====== ARTICLE II. Elective Franchise. ======
=== Section 1. ===
The general election of the state shall be held biennially as provided
by law.
Every citizen of the United States, who has attained the age of
eighteen years and who is a North Dakota resident, shall be a qualified
elector. When an elector moves within the state, he shall be entitled to
vote in the precinct from which he moves until he establishes voting
residence in another precinct. The legislative assembly shall provide by
law for the determination of residence for voting eligibility, other
than physical presence. No elector shall lose his residency for voting
eligibility solely by reason of his absence from the state.
The legislative assembly shall provide by law for secrecy in voting, for
absentee voting, for administration of elections and for the nomination
of candidates.
=== Section 2. ===
No person who has been declared mentally incompetent by order of a court
or other authority having jurisdiction, which order has not been
rescinded, shall be qualified to vote. No person convicted of a felony
shall be qualified to vote until his or her civil rights are restored.
[Adopted Nov. 7, 1978, Measure 2 {{ :laws:1978-11-07_measure2.pdf |S.L. 1979 ch. 695 }} ]
====== ARTICLE III Powers Reserved to the People. ======
=== Section 1. ===
While the legislative power of this state shall be vested in a
legislative assembly consisting of a senate and a house of
representatives, the people reserve the power to propose and enact laws
by the initiative, including the call for a constitutional convention;
to approve or reject legislative Acts, or parts thereof, by the
referendum; to propose and adopt constitutional amendments by the
initiative; and to recall certain elected officials. This article is
self-executing and all of its provisions are mandatory. Laws may be
enacted to facilitate and safeguard, but not to hamper, restrict, or
impair these powers.
=== Section 2. ===
A petition to initiate or to refer a measure shall be presented to the
secretary of state for approval as to form. A request for approval shall
be presented over the names and signatures of twenty-five or more
electors as sponsors, one of whom shall be designated as chairman of the
sponsoring committee. The secretary of state shall approve the petition
for circulation if it is in proper form and contains the names and
addresses of the sponsors and the full text of the measure.
=== Section 3. ===
The petition shall be circulated only by electors. They shall swear
thereon that the electors who have signed the petition did so in their
presence. Each elector signing a petition shall also write in the date
of signing and his post-office address. No law shall be enacted limiting
the number of copies of a petition. The copies shall become part of the
original petition when filed.
=== Section 4. ===
The petition may be submitted to the secretary of state if signed by
electors equal in number to two percent of the resident population of
the state at the last federal decennial census.
=== Section 5. ===
An initiative petition shall be submitted not less than ninety
days before the statewide election at which the measure is to be
voted upon. A referendum petition may be submitted only within ninety
days after the filing of the measure with the secretary of state. The
submission of a petition shall suspend the operation of any measure
enacted by the legislative assembly except emergency measures and
appropriation measures for the support and maintenance of state
departments and institutions. The submission of a petition against one
or more items or parts of any measure shall not prevent the remainder
from going into effect. A referred measure may be voted upon at a
statewide election or at a special election called by the governor.
=== Section 6. ===
The secretary of state shall pass upon each petition, and if he
finds it insufficient, he shall
notify the "committee for the petitioners" and allow twenty days for
correction or amendment. All decisions of the secretary of state in regard to any
such petition shall be subject to review by the supreme court. But if the
sufficiency of such petition is being reviewed at the time the ballot is
prepared, the secretary of state shall place the measure on the ballot
and no subsequent decision shall invalidate such measure if it is at such
election approved by a majority of the votes cast thereon. If
proceedings are brought against any petition upon any ground, the burden
of proof shall be upon the party attacking it.
=== Section 7. ===
All decisions of the secretary of state in the petition process are
subject to review by the supreme court in the exercise of original
jurisdiction. If his decision is being
reviewed at the time the ballot is prepared, he
shall place the measure on the ballot and no court action shall
invalidate the measure if it is approved at the election by a majority
of the votes cast thereon.
=== Section 8. ===
If a majority of votes cast upon an initiated or a referred measure are
affirmative, it shall be deemed enacted. An initiated or referred
measure which is approved shall become law thirty days after the
election, and a referred measure which is rejected shall be void
immediately. If conflicting measures are approved, the one receiving the
highest number of affirmative votes shall be law. A measure approved by
the electors may not be repealed or amended by the legislative assembly
for seven years from its effective date, except by a two-thirds vote of
the members elected to each house.
=== Section 9. ===
A constitutional amendment may be proposed by initiative petition. If
signed by electors equal in number to four percent of the resident
population of the state at the last federal decennial census, the
petition may be submitted to the secretary of state. All other
provisions relating to initiative measures apply hereto.
=== Section 10. ===
Any elected official of the state, of any county or of any legislative
or county commissioner district shall be subject to recall by petition
of electors equal in number to twenty-five percent of those who voted at
the preceding general election for the office of governor in the state,
county, or district in which the official is to be recalled.
The petition shall be filed with the official with whom a petition for
nomination to the office in question is filed, who shall call a special
election if he finds the petition valid and sufficient. No elector may
remove his name from a recall petition.
The name of the official to be recalled shall be placed on the ballot
unless he resigns within ten days after the filing of the petition.
Other candidates for the office may be nominated in a manner provided by
law. When the election results have been officially declared, the
candidate receiving the highest number of votes shall be deemed elected
for the remainder of the term. No official shall be subject twice to
recall during the term for which he was elected.
====== ARTICLE IV. Legislative Branch. ======
=== Section 1. ===
The senate must be composed of not less than forty nor more than
fifty-four members, and the house of representatives must be composed of
not less than eighty nor more than one hundred eight members. These
houses are jointly designated as the legislative assembly of the state
of North Dakota.
=== Section 2. ===
The legislative assembly shall fix the number of senators and
representatives and divide the state into as many senatorial districts
of compact and contiguous territory as there are senators. The districts
thus ascertained and determined after the 1990 federal decennial census
shall continue until the adjournment of the first regular session after
each federal decennial census, or until changed by law.
The legislative assembly shall guarantee, as nearly as is practicable,
that every elector is equal to every other elector in the state in the
power to cast ballots for legislative candidates. A senator and at least
two representatives must be apportioned to each senatorial district and
be elected at large or from subdistricts from those districts. The
legislative assembly may combine two senatorial districts only when a
single member senatorial district includes a federal facility or federal
installation, containing over two-thirds of the population of a single
member senatorial district, and may provide for the election of senators
at large and representatives at large or from subdistricts from those
districts.
=== Section 3. ===
The legislative assembly shall establish by law a procedure whereby one-half of
the members of the senate, as nearly as is practicable, are elected biennially.
=== Section 4. ===
Senators must be elected for terms of four years and representatives for terms
of two years.
=== Section 5. ===
Each person elected to the legislative assembly must
be, on the day of the election, a qualified elector in
the district from which the member was chosen and must have been a
resident of the state for one year immediately prior to that election.
=== Section 6. ===
While serving in the legislative assembly, no member may hold any full-time
appointive state office established by this constitution or designated by law.
During the term for which elected, no member of the legislative assembly may be
appointed to any full-time office which has been created, or to any office for
which the compensation has been increased, by the legislative assembly during
that term.
=== Section 7. ===
The terms of members of the legislative assembly begin on the first day
of December following their election.
The legislative assembly shall meet at the seat of government in the
month of December following the election of the members thereof for
organizational and orientation purposes as provided by law and shall
thereafter recess until twelve noon on the first Tuesday after the third
day in January or at such other time as may be prescribed by law but not
later than the eleventh day of January.
No regular session of the legislative assembly may exceed eighty natural
days during the biennium. The organizational meeting of the legislative
assembly may not be counted as part of those eighty natural days, nor
may days spent in session at the call of the governor or while engaged
in impeachment proceedings, be counted. Days spent in regular session
need not be consecutive, and the legislative assembly may authorize its
committees to meet at any time during the biennium. As used in this
section, a "natural day" means a period of twenty-four consecutive
hours.
Neither house may recess nor adjourn for more than three days without
consent of the other house.
=== Section 8. ===
The house of representatives shall elect one of its members to act as presiding
officer at the beginning of each organizational session.
=== Section 9. ===
If any person elected to either house of the legislative assembly shall
offer or promise to give his vote or influence, in favor of, or against
any measure or proposition pending or proposed to be introduced into the
legislative assembly, in consideration, or upon conditions, that any
other person elected to the same legislative assembly will give, or will
promise or assent to give, his vote or influence in favor of or against
any other measure or proposition, pending or proposed to be introduced
into such legislative assembly, the person making such offer or promise
shall be deemed guilty of solicitation of bribery. If any member of the
legislative assembly, shall give his vote or influence for or against
any measure or proposition, pending or proposed to be introduced into
such legislative assembly, or offer, promise or assent so to do upon
condition that any other member will give, promise or assent to give his
vote or influence in favor of or against any other such measure or
proposition pending or proposed to be introduced into such legislative
assembly, or in consideration that any other member hath given his vote
or influence, for or against any other measure or proposition in such
legislative assembly, he shall be deemed guilty of bribery. And any
person, member of the legislative assembly or person elected thereto,
who shall be guilty of either such offenses, shall be expelled, and
shall not thereafter be eligible to the legislative assembly, and, on
the conviction thereof in the civil courts, shall be liable to such
further penalty as may be prescribed by law.
=== Section 10. ===
No member of the legislative assembly, expelled for corruption, and no
person convicted of bribery, perjury or other infamous crime shall be
eligible to the legislative assembly, or to any office in either branch
thereof.
=== Section 11. ===
The governor shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies as
may occur in either house of the legislative assembly.
=== Section 12. ===
A majority of the members elected to each house constitutes a quorum. A
smaller number may adjourn from day to day and may compel attendance of
absent members in a manner, and under a penalty, as may be provided by
law.
Each house is the judge of the qualifications of its members, but
election contests are subject to judicial review as provided by law. If
two or more candidates for the same office receive an equal and highest
number of votes, the secretary of state shall choose one of them by the
toss of a coin.
Each house shall determine its rules of procedure, and may punish its
members or other persons for contempt or disorderly behavior in its
presence. With the concurrence of two-thirds of its elected members,
either house may expel a member.
=== Section 13. ===
Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and a recorded vote
on any question shall be taken at the request of one-sixth of those
members present. No bill may become law except by a recorded vote of a
majority of the members elected to each house, and the lieutenant
governor is considered a member-elect of the senate when the lieutenant
governor votes.
No law may be enacted except by a bill passed by both houses, and no
bill may be amended on its passage through either house in a manner
which changes its general subject matter. No bill may embrace more than
one subject, which must be expressed in its title; but a law violating
this provision is invalid only to the extent the subject is not so
expressed.
Every bill must be read on two separate natural days, and the readings
may be by title only unless a reading at length is demanded by one-fifth
of the members present.
No bill may be amended, extended, or incorporated in any other bill by
reference to its title only, except in the case of definitions and
procedural provisions.
The presiding officer of each house shall sign all bills passed and
resolutions adopted by the legislative assembly, and the fact of signing
shall be entered at once in the journal.
Every law, except as otherwise provided in this section, enacted by the
legislative assembly takes effect
on July first after its filing with the secretary of state or
ninety days after its filing whichever comes later, or on a subsequent date if specified
in the law unless, by a vote of two-thirds of the members elected to
each house, the legislative assembly declares it an emergency measure
and includes the declaration in the Act. Every appropriation measure for
support and maintenance of state departments and institutions and every
tax measure that changes tax rates enacted by the legislative assembly
take effect on July first after its filing with the secretary of state
or on a subsequent date if specified in the law unless, by a vote of
two-thirds of the members elected to each house, the legislative
assembly declares it an emergency measure and includes the declaration
in the Act. An emergency measure takes effect upon its filing with the
secretary of state or on a date specified in the measure. Every law
enacted by a special session of the legislative assembly takes effect on
a date specified in the Act.
The legislative assembly shall enact all laws necessary to carry into
effect the provisions of this constitution. Except as otherwise provided
in this constitution, no local or special laws may be enacted, nor may
the legislative assembly indirectly enact special or local laws by the
partial repeal of a general law but laws repealing local or special laws
may be enacted.
=== Section 14. ===
All sessions of the legislative assembly, including the committee of the whole
and meetings of legislative committees, must be open and public.
=== Section 15. ===
Members of the legislative assembly are immune from arrest during their
attendance at the sessions, and in going to or returning from the
sessions, except in cases of felony. Members of the legislative assembly
may not be questioned in any other place for any words used in any
speech or debate in legislative proceedings.
=== Section 16. ===
Any amendment to this constitution may be proposed in either house of
the legislative assembly, and if agreed to upon a roll call by a
majority of the members elected to each house, must be submitted to the
electors and if a majority of the votes cast thereon are in the
affirmative, the amendment is a part of this constitution.
=== Section 17. ===
Renumbered.
====== ARTICLE V. Executive Branch. ======
=== Section 1. ===
The executive power shall be vested in a governor, who shall reside at
the seat of government and shall hold office for the term of four
years beginning in the year 1988, and until a successor is elected and
duly qualified. The term begins on December fifteenth following the
governor's election.
[ [[https://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1987/pdf/CAA.pdf#page=5|Amended Nov. 4, 1986]], effective Dec. 4, 1986 ]
=== Section 2. ===
A lieutenant governor shall be elected at the same time and for the
same term as the governor. In case of the death, impeachment,
resignation, failure to qualify, absence from the state, removal from
office, or the disability of the governor, the powers and duties of
the office for the residue of the term, or until he shall be acquitted
or the disability be removed, shall devolve upon the lieutenant
governor.
=== Section 3. ===
No person shall be eligible to the office of governor or lieutenant
governor unless he be a citizen of the United States, and a qualified
elector of the state, who shall have attained the age of thirty years,
and who shall have resided five years next preceding the election
within the state or territory, nor shall he be eligible to any other
office during the term for which he shall have been elected.
=== Section 4. ===
The governor and lieutenant governor shall be elected upon a joint
ballot by the qualified electors of the state beginning with elections
held in 1976. A single vote shall be cast upon a joint ballot by each
qualified elector for the joint candidates representing the political
party or affiliation of his choice. The joint candidates having the
highest number of votes shall be declared elected, but if two or more
joint candidates shall have an equal and highest number of votes for
governor and lieutenant governor, the two houses of the legislative
assembly at its next regular session shall forthwith in joint session
choose one pair of such joint candidates for said offices. The returns
of the election for governor and lieutenant governor shall be made in
such manner as shall be prescribed by law.
=== Section 5. ===
The governor shall be commander-in-chief of the military and naval
forces of the state, except when they shall be called into the service
of the United States, and may call out the same to execute the laws,
suppress insurrection and repel invasion. He shall have power to
convene the legislative assembly on extraordinary occasions. He shall
at the commencement of each session communicate to the legislative
assembly by message, information of the condition of the state, and
recommend such measures as he shall deem expedient. He shall transact
all necessary business with the officers of the government, civil and
military. He shall expedite all such measures as may be resolved upon
by the legislative assembly and shall take care that the laws be
faithfully executed.
=== Section 6. ===
The governor shall have power in conjunction with the board of pardon
of which the governor shall be ex officio a member and the other
members of which shall consist of the attorney general of the state of
North Dakota, the chief justice of the supreme court of the state of
North Dakota, and two qualified electors who shall be appointed by the
governor, to remit fines and forfeitures, to grant reprieves,
commutations and pardons after conviction for all offenses except
treason and cases of impeachment; but the legislative assembly may by
law regulate the manner in which the remission of fines, pardons,
commutations and reprieves may be applied for. Upon conviction for
treason the governor shall have the power to suspend the execution of
sentence until the case shall be reported to the legislative assembly
at its next regular session, when the legislative assembly shall
either pardon or commute the sentence, direct the execution of the
sentence or grant further reprieve. The governor shall communicate to
the legislative assembly at each regular session each case of
remission of fine, reprieve, commutation or pardon granted by the
board of pardon, stating the name of the convict, the crime for which
he is convicted, the sentence and its date and the date of the
remission, commutation, pardon or reprieve, with their reasons for
granting the same.
=== Section 7. ===
The powers and duties of the lieutenant governor shall be to serve as
president of the senate, and he may, when the senate is equally
divided, vote on procedural matters, and on substantive matters if his
vote would be decisive. Additional duties shall be prescribed by the
governor. If, during the vacancy in the office of governor, the
lieutenant governor shall be impeached, displaced, resign, or die, or
from mental or physical disease, or otherwise become incapable of
performing the duties of his office, the secretary of state shall act
as governor until the vacancy shall be filled or the disability
removed.
=== Section 8. ===
When any office shall from any cause become vacant, and no mode is
provided by the constitution or law for filling such vacancy, the
governor shall have power to fill such vacancy by appointment.
=== Section 9. ===
Every bill which shall have passed the legislative assembly shall
before it becomes a law, be presented to the governor. If he approves,
he shall sign, but if not, he shall return it with his objections, to
the house in which it originated, which shall enter the objections at
large upon the journal and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such
reconsideration, two-thirds of the members-elect shall agree to pass
the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections to the other
house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if it be
approved by two-thirds of the members-elect, it shall become a law;
but in all such cases the vote of both houses shall be determined by
the yeas and nays, and the names of the members voting for and against
the bill shall be entered upon the journal of each house respectively.
If any bill shall not be returned by the governor within three days
(Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same
shall be a law unless the legislative assembly by its adjournment,
prevent its return, in which case it shall be a law unless he shall
file the same with his objections in the office of the secretary of
state within fifteen days after such adjournment.
=== Section 10. ===
The governor shall have power to disapprove of any item or items, or
part or parts of any bill making appropriations of money or property
embracing distinct items, and the part or parts of the bill approved
shall be the law, and the item or items, and part or parts disapproved
shall be void, unless enacted in the following manner: If the
legislative assembly be in session he shall transmit to the house in
which the bill originated a copy of the item or items, or part or
parts thereof disapproved together with his objections thereto, and
the items or parts objected to shall be separately reconsidered, and
each item or part shall then take the same course as is prescribed for
the passage of bills over the executive veto.
=== Section 11. ===
Any governor of this state who asks, receives or agrees to receive any
bribe upon any understanding that his official opinion, judgment or
action shall be influenced thereby, or who gives or offers, or
promises his official influence in consideration that any member of
the legislative assembly shall give his official vote or influence on
any particular side of any question or matter upon which he may be
required to act in his official capacity, or who menaces any member by
the threatened use of his veto power, or who offers or promises any
member that he, the said governor, will appoint any particular person
or persons to any office created or thereafter to be created, in
consideration that any member shall give his official vote or
influence on any matter pending or thereafter to be introduced into
either house of said legislative assembly, or who threatens any member
that he, the said governor, will remove any person or persons from
office or position with intent in any manner to influence the action
of said member, shall be punished in the manner now, or that may
hereafter, be provided by law, and upon conviction thereof shall
forfeit all right to hold or exercise any office of trust or honor in
this state.
=== Section 12. ===
There shall be chosen by the qualified electors of the state at the
times and places of choosing members of the legislative assembly, a
secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, superintendent of public
instruction, commissioner of insurance, an attorney general, a
commissioner of agriculture and labor, and a tax commissioner, who
shall have attained the age of twenty-five years and shall have the
qualifications of state electors. They shall severally hold their
offices at the seat of government for the term of four years beginning
with the year 1965, and until their successors are elected and duly
qualified; but no person shall be eligible for the office of treasurer
for more than two consecutive terms.
The board of railroad commissioners shall hereafter be known as the
public service commission and the members of the board of railroad
commissioners as public service commissioners and the powers and
duties now or hereafter granted to and conferred upon the board of
railroad commissioners are hereby transferred to the public service
commission.
The public service commissioners shall have the qualifications of
state electors, have attained the age of twenty-five years, be chosen
by the qualified electors of the state at the times and places of
choosing members of the legislative assembly, hold office at the seat
of government and until their successors are elected and duly
qualified. As each of the three public service commissioners now
holding office completes his term, his successor shall be elected for
a term of six years.
The legislative assembly may by law provide for a department of labor,
which, if provided for, shall be separate and distinct from the
department of agriculture, and shall be administered by a public
official who may be either elected or appointed, whichever the
legislative assembly shall declare; and if such a department is
established the commissioner of agriculture and labor provided for
above shall become the commissioner of agriculture.
====== ARTICLE VI. Judicial Branch. ======
=== Section 1. ===
The judicial power of the state is vested in a unified judicial system
consisting of a supreme court, a district court, and such other courts
as may be provided by law.
=== Section 2. ===
The supreme court shall be the highest court of the state. It shall have
appellate jurisdiction, and shall also have original jurisdiction with
authority to issue, hear, and determine such original and remedial writs
as may be necessary to properly exercise its jurisdiction. The supreme
court shall consist of five justices, one of whom shall be designated
chief justice in the manner provided by law.
=== Section 3. ===
The supreme court shall have authority to promulgate rules of procedure,
including appellate procedure, to be followed by all the courts of this
state; and, unless otherwise provided by law, to promulgate rules and
regulations for the admission to practice, conduct, disciplining, and
disbarment of attorneys at law.
The chief justice shall be the administrative head of the unified
judicial system. He may assign judges, including retired judges, for
temporary duty in any court or district under such rules and regulations
as may be promulgated by the supreme court. The chief justice shall
appoint a court administrator for the unified judicial system. Unless
otherwise provided by law, the powers, duties, qualifications, and terms
of office of the court administrator, and other court officials, shall
be as provided by rules of the court.
[Adopted Sep. 7, 1976]
=== Section 4. ===
A majority of the supreme court shall be necessary to constitute a
quorum or to pronounce a decision, provided that the supreme court shall
not declare a legislative enactment unconstitutional unless at least
four of the members of the court so decide.
[Amended Sep. 7, 1976]
=== Section 5. ===
When a judgment or order is reversed, modified, or confirmed by the
supreme court, the reasons shall be concisely stated in writing, signed
by the justices concurring, filed in the office of the clerk of the
supreme court, and preserved with a record of the case. Any justice
dissenting may give the reason for his dissent in writing over his
signature.
=== Section 6. ===
Appeals shall be allowed from decisions of lower courts to the supreme
court as may be provided by law.
[Amended 1976]
=== Section 7. ===
The justices of the supreme court shall be chosen by the electors of the
state for ten-year terms, so arranged that one justice is elected every
two years. They shall hold office until their successors are duly
qualified, and shall receive compensation as provided by law, but the
compensation of any justice shall not be diminished during his term of
office.
=== Section 8. ===
The district court shall have original jurisdiction of all causes,
except as otherwise provided by law, and such appellate jurisdiction as
may be provided by law or by rule of the supreme court. The district
court shall have authority to issue such writs as are necessary to the
proper exercise of its jurisdiction.
=== Section 9. ===
The state shall be divided into judicial districts by order of the
supreme court. In each district, one or more judges, as provided by law,
shall be chosen by the electors of the district. The term of office
shall be six years, and a district judge shall hold office until his
successor is duly qualified. The compensation of district judges shall
be fixed by law, but the compensation of any district judge shall not be
diminished during his term of office.
=== Section 10. ===
Supreme court justices and district court judges shall be citizens of
the United States and residents of this state, shall be learned in the
law, and shall possess any additional qualifications prescribed by law.
Judges of other courts shall be selected for such terms and shall have
such qualifications as may be prescribed by law.
No justice of the supreme court or judge of the district court of this
state shall engage in the practice of law, or hold any public office,
elective or appointive, not judicial in nature. No duties shall be
imposed by law upon the supreme court or any of the justices thereof,
except such as are judicial, nor shall any of the justices exercise any
power of appointment except as herein provided. No judge of any court of
this state shall be paid from the fees of his office, nor shall the
amount of his compensation be measured by fees, other moneys received,
or the amount of judicial activity of his office.
[Amended 1976]
=== Section 11. ===
When any justice or judge has a conflict of interest in a pending cause
or is unable to sit in court because he is physically or mentally
incapacitated, the chief justice, or a justice acting in his stead,
shall assign a judge, or retired justice or judge, to hear the cause.
[Amended 1976]
=== Section 12. ===
The legislative assembly may provide for the retirement, discipline, and
removal of judges. The removal procedure provided for herein may be used
in addition to the impeachment proceedings provided for in article XI,
sections 8, 9, and 10, and removal provided for in article XI, section
11.
=== Section 12.1. ===
The legislative assembly may provide for the retirement, discipline and
removal of judges of the supreme court and district court. The removal
procedure provided for herein may be used in addition to the impeachment
proceedings provided for in article XI, sections 8, 9, and 10.
[Amended
[[https://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1977/pdf/CAA.pdf|Sep. 7, 1976]] and
[[https://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1975/pdf/CAA.pdf|Nov. 5, 1974]] ]
=== Section 13. ===
1. A judicial nominating committee shall be established by law. Any vacancy in
the office of supreme court justice or district court judge shall be filled by
appointment by the governor from a list of candidates nominated by the
committee, unless the governor calls a special election to fill the vacancy for
the remainder of the term. An appointment shall continue until the next
general election, when the office shall be filled by election for the remainder
of the term.
====== ARTICLE VII. Political Subdivisions. ======
=== Section 1. ===
The purpose of this article is to provide for maximum local
self-government by all political subdivisions with a minimum duplication
of functions.
=== Section 2. ===
The legislative assembly shall provide by law for the establishment and
the government of all political subdivisions. Each political subdivision
shall have and exercise such powers as provided by law.
=== Section 3. ===
The several counties of the state of North Dakota as they now exist are hereby
declared to be counties of the state of North Dakota.
=== Section 4. ===
The legislative assembly shall provide by law for relocating county
seats within counties, but it shall have no power to remove the county
seat of any county.
=== Section 5. ===
Methods and standards by which all or any portion of a county or
counties may be annexed, merged, consolidated, reclassified, or
dissolved shall be as provided by law. No portion of any county or
counties shall be annexed, merged, consolidated, or dissolved unless a
majority of the electors of each affected county voting on the question
so approve.
=== Section 6. ===
The legislative assembly shall provide by law for the establishment and
exercise of home rule in counties and cities. No home rule charter shall
become operative in any county or city until submitted to the electors
thereof and approved by a majority of those voting thereon. In granting
home rule powers to cities, the legislative assembly shall not be
restricted by city debt limitations contained in this constitution.
=== Section 7. ===
The legislative assembly shall also provide by law for optional forms of
government for counties, but no optional form of government shall become
operative in any county until submitted to the electors thereof at a
special or general election, and approved by a majority of those voting
thereon.
Until one of the optional forms of county government is adopted by any
county, the fiscal and administrative affairs of the county shall be
governed by a board of county commissioners as provided by law.
=== Section 8. ===
Each county shall provide for law enforcement, administrative and fiscal
services, recording and registration services, educational services, and
any other governmental services or functions as may be provided by law.
Any elective county office shall be for a term of four years.
=== Section 9. ===
Questions of the form of government to be adopted by any county or on
the elimination or reinstatement of elective county offices may be
placed upon the ballot by petition of electors of the county equal in
number to twenty-five percent of the votes cast in the county for the
office of governor at the preceding gubernatorial election.
=== Section 10. ===
Agreements, including those for cooperative or joint administration of
any powers or functions, may be made by any political subdivision with
any other political subdivision, with the state, or with the United
States, unless otherwise provided by law or home rule charter. A
political subdivision may by mutual agreement transfer to the county
in which it is located any of its powers or functions as provided by
law or home rule charter, and may in like manner revoke the transfer.
=== Section 11. ===
The power of the governing board of a city to franchise the
construction and operation of any public utility or similar service
within the city shall not be abridged by the legislative assembly.
====== ARTICLE VIII. Education. ======
=== Section 1. ===
A high degree of intelligence, patriotism, integrity and morality on the
part of every voter in a government by the people being necessary in
order to insure the continuance of that government and the prosperity
and happiness of the people, the legislative assembly shall make
provision for the establishment and maintenance of a system of public
schools which shall be open to all children of the state of North Dakota
and free from sectarian control. This legislative requirement shall be
irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of
North Dakota.
=== Section 2. ===
The legislative assembly shall provide for a uniform system of free
public schools throughout the state, beginning with the primary and
extending through all grades up to and including schools of higher
education, except that the legislative assembly may authorize tuition,
fees and service charges to assist in the financing of public schools of
higher education.
=== Section 3. ===
In all schools instruction shall be given as far as practicable in those
branches of knowledge that tend to impress upon the mind the vital
importance of truthfulness, temperance, purity, public spirit, and
respect for honest labor of every kind.
=== Section 4. ===
The legislative assembly shall take such other steps as may be necessary
to prevent illiteracy, secure a reasonable degree of uniformity in
course of study, and to promote industrial, scientific, and agricultural
improvements.
=== Section 5. ===
All colleges, universities, and other educational institutions, for the
support of which lands have been granted to this state, or which are
supported by a public tax, shall remain under the absolute and exclusive
control of the state. No money raised for the support of the public
schools of the state shall be appropriated to or used for the support of
any sectarian school.
=== Section 6. ===
1. A board of higher education, to be officially known as the state board of higher
education, is hereby created for the control and administration of the following state
educational institutions, to wit:
a. The state university and school of mines, at Grand Forks, with their substations.
b. The state agricultural college and experiment station, at Fargo, with their
substations.
c. The school of science, at Wahpeton.
d. The state normal schools and teachers colleges, at Valley City, Mayville, Minot,
and Dickinson.
e. The school of forestry, at Bottineau.
f. And such other state institutions of higher education as may hereafter be
established.
2.
a. The state Board of Higher Education shall consist of seven members, all
of whom shall be qualified electors and taxpayers of the state, and who shall
have resided in this state for not less than five years immediately preceding
their appointment, to be appointed by the governor, by and with the consent of
the senate, from a list of names selected as hereinafter provided.
There shall not be on said board more than one graduate of any one of the
institutions under the jurisdiction of the state Board of Higher Education at
any one time. No person employed by any institution under the control of the
board shall serve as a member of the board, nor shall any employee of any such
institution be eligible for membership on the state Board of Higher Education
for a period of two years following the termination of his employment.
On or before the first day of February, 1939, the governor shall nominate from a
list of three names for each position, selected by the unanimous action of the
President of the North Dakota Educational Association, the Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and, with the
consent of a majority of the members-elect of the senate, shall appoint from
such list as such state Board of Higher Education seven members, whose terms
shall commence on the first day of July, 1939, one of which terms shall expire
on the thirtieth day of June, 1940, and one on the thirtieth day of June in each
of the years 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, and 1946. The term of office of
members appointed to fill vacancies at the expiration of said terms shall be for
seven years, and in the case of vacancies otherwise arising, appointments shall
be made only for the balance of the term of the members whose places are to be
filled.
b. In the event any nomination made by the governor is not consented to and
confirmed by the senate as hereinbefore provided, the governor shall again
nominate a candidate for such office, selected from a new list, prepared in the
manner hereinbefore provided, which nomination shall be submitted to the senate
for confirmation, and said proceedings shall be continued until such
appointments have been confirmed by the senate, or the session of the
legislature shall have adjourned.
c. When any term expires or a vacancy occurs when the legislature is not in
session, the governor may appoint from a list selected as hereinbefore provided,
a member who shall serve until the opening of the next session of the
legislature, at which time his appointment shall be certified to the senate for
confirmation, as above provided; and if the appointment be not confirmed by the
thirtieth legislative day of such session, his office shall be deemed vacant and
the governor shall nominate from a list selected as hereinbefore provided,
another candidate for such office and the same proceedings shall be followed as
are above set forth; provided further, that when the legislature shall be in
session at any time within six months prior to the date of the expiration of the
term of any member, the governor shall nominate his successor from a list
selected as above set forth, within the first thirty days of such session, and
upon confirmation by the senate such successor shall take office at the
expiration of the term of the incumbent. No person who has been nominated and
whose nomination the senate has failed to confirm shall be eligible for an
interim appointment.
3. The members of the state board of higher education may only be removed by
impeachment for the offenses and in the manner and according to the procedure
provided for the removal of the governor by impeachment proceedings.
4. Each appointive member of the state board of higher education, except the student
member, shall receive compensation set by the legislative assembly for the time
actually spent devoted to the duties of the member's office. All members shall receive
necessary expenses in the same manner and amounts as other state officials for
attending meetings and performing other functions of their office.
5. The legislature shall provide adequate funds for the proper carrying out of the
functions and duties of the state board of higher education.
6.
a. The state board of higher education shall hold its first meeting at the office of the
state board of administration at Bismarck, on the 6th day of July, 1939, and shall
organize and elect one of its members as president of such board for a term of
one year. It shall also at said meeting, or as soon thereafter as may be
practicable, elect a competent person as secretary, who shall reside during his
term of office in the city of Bismarck, North Dakota. Said secretary shall hold
office at the will of the board. As soon as said board is established and
organized, it shall assume all the powers and perform all the duties now
conferred by law upon the board of administration in connection with the several
institutions hereinbefore mentioned, and the said board of administration shall
immediately upon the organization of said state board of higher education,
surrender and transfer to said state board of higher education all duties, rights,
and powers granted to it under the existing laws of this state concerning the
institutions hereinbefore mentioned, together with all property, deeds, records,
reports, and appurtenances of every kind belonging or appertaining to said
institutions.
b. The said state board of higher education shall have full authority over the
institutions under its control with the right, among its other powers, to prescribe,
limit, or modify the courses offered at the several institutions. In furtherance of
its powers, the state board of higher education shall have the power to delegate
to its employees details of the administration of the institutions under its control.
The said state board of higher education shall have full authority to organize or
reorganize within constitutional and statutory limitations, the work of each
institution under its control, and do each and everything necessary and proper
for the efficient and economic administration of said state educational
institutions.
c. Said board shall prescribe for all of said institutions standard systems of
accounts and records and shall biennially, and within six (6) months immediately
preceding the regular session of the legislature, make a report to the governor,
covering in detail the operations of the educational institutions under its control.
d. It shall be the duty of the heads of the several state institutions hereinbefore
mentioned, to submit the budget requests for the biennial appropriations for said
institutions to said state board of higher education; and said state board of
higher education shall consider said budgets and shall revise the same as in its
judgment shall be for the best interests of the educational system of the state;
and thereafter the state board of higher education shall prepare and present to
the state budget board and to the legislature a single unified budget covering the
needs of all the institutions under its control. "Said budget shall be prepared and
presented by the board of administration until the state board of higher
education organizes as provided in subsection 6a." The appropriations for all of
said institutions shall be contained in one legislative measure. The budgets and
appropriation measures for the agricultural experiment stations and their
substations and the extension division of the North Dakota state university of
agriculture and applied science may be separate from those of state educational
institutions.
e. The said state board of higher education shall have the control of the
expenditure of the funds belonging to, and allocated to such institutions and also
those appropriated by the legislature, for the institutions of higher education in
this state; provided, however, that funds appropriated by the legislature and
specifically designated for any one or more of such institutions, shall not be
used for any other institution.
7.
a. The state board of higher education shall, as soon as practicable, appoint for a
term of not to exceed three (3) years, a state commissioner of higher education,
whose principal office shall be at the state capitol, in the city of Bismarck. Said
commissioner of higher education shall be responsible to the state board of
higher education and shall be removable by said board for cause.
b. The state commissioner of higher education shall be a graduate of some
reputable college or university, and who by training and experience is familiar
with the problems peculiar to higher education.
c. Such commissioner of higher education shall be the chief executive officer of
said state board of higher education, and shall perform such duties as shall be
prescribed by the board.
8. This constitutional provision shall be self-executing and shall
become effective without the necessity of legislative action.
[ [[https://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/55-1997/ranch/SL7CNSTM.pdf#page=10|Amended Nov. 5, 1996]], effective Dec. 5, 1996]
====== ARTICLE IX. Trust Lands ======
=== Section 1. ===
All proceeds of the public lands that have heretofore been, or may
hereafter be granted by the United States for the support of the
common schools in this state; all such per centum as may be granted by
the United States on the sale of public lands; the proceeds of
property that shall fall to the state by escheat; all gifts,
donations, or the proceeds thereof that come to the state for support
of the common schools, or not otherwise appropriated by the terms of
the gift, and all other property otherwise acquired for common
schools, shall be and remain a perpetual trust fund for the
maintenance of the common schools of the state. Only the interest and
income of the fund may be expended and the princial shall be retained
and devoted to the trust purpose. All property, real or personal,
received by the state from whatever source, for any specific
educational or charitable institution, unless otherwise designated by
the donor, shall be and remain a perpetual trust fund for the creation
and maintenance of such institution, and may be commingled only with
similar funds for the same institution. Should a gift be made to an
institution for a specific purpose, without designating a trustee,
such gift may be placed in the institution's fund; provided that such
a donation may be expended as the terms of the gift provide.
The interest and income of each institutional trust fund held by the
state shall, unless otherwise specified by the donor, be appropriated
by the legislative assembly to the exclusive use of the institution
for which the funds were given.
The proceeds of all bonuses, or similar payments, made upon the leasing
of coal, gas, oil, or any other mineral interests under, or reserved
after sale of, grant lands for the common schools or institutional lands
shall be deposited in the appropriate permanent trust fund as created
by this section.
=== Section 2. ===
The interest and income of this fund together with the net
proceeds of all fines for violation of state laws and all other sums
which may be added thereto by law, shall be faithfully used and applied each year
for the benefit of the common schools of the state and no part of the
fund shall ever be diverted, even temporarily, from this purpose or used
for any other purpose whatever than the maintenance of common schools as provided
by law.
=== Section 3. ===
The superintendent of public instruction, governor, attorney general,
secretary of state and state treasurer comprise a board of
commissioners, to be denominated the "board of university and school
lands". Subject to the provisions of this article and any law that may
be passed by the legislative assembly, the board has control of the
appraisement, sale, rental, and disposal of all school and university
lands, and the proceeds from the sale of such lands shall be invested as
provided by law.
=== Section 4. ===
The public officers designated by law shall constitute boards of
appraisal and under the authority of the state board of university and
school lands shall appraise all school lands within their respective
counties which they may from time to time recommend for sale at their
actual value under the prescribed terms and shall first select and
designate for sale the most valuable lands.
=== Section 5. ===
After one year from the assembling of the first legislative assembly the
lands granted to the state from the United States for the support of the
common schools, may be sold upon the following conditions and no other:
No more than one-fourth of all such lands shall be sold within the first
five years after the same become salable by virtue of this section. No
more than one-half of the remainder within ten years after the same
become salable as aforesaid. The residue may be sold at any time after
the expiration of said ten years. The legislative assembly shall provide
for the sale of all school lands subject to the provisions of this
article. In all sales of lands subject to the provisions of this article
all minerals therein, including but not limited to oil, gas, coal,
cement materials, sodium sulphate, sand and gravel, road material,
building stone, chemical substances, metallic ores, uranium ores, or
colloidal or other clays, shall be reserved and excepted to the state of
North Dakota, except that leases may be executed for the extraction and
sale of such materials in such manner and upon such terms as the
legislative assembly may provide.
=== Section 6. ===
No original grant school or institutional land shall be sold for less
than the fair market value thereof, and in no case for less than ten
dollars ($10.00) per acre, provided that when lands have been sold on
contract and the contract has been canceled, such lands may be resold
without reappraisement by the board of appraisal. The purchaser shall
pay twenty (20) percent of the purchase price at the time the contract
is executed; thereafter annual payments shall be made of not less than
six (6) percent of the original purchase price. An amount equal to not
less than three (3) percent per annum of the unpaid principal shall be
credited to interest and the balance shall be applied as payment on
principal as credit on purchase price. The purchaser may pay all or any
installment or installments not yet due to any interest paying date. If
the purchaser so desires, he may pay the entire balance due on his
contract with interest to date of payment at any time and he will then
be entitled to proper conveyance.
All sales shall be held at the county seat of the county in which the
land to be sold is situated, and shall be at public auction and to the
highest bidder, and notice of such sale shall be published once each
week for a period of three weeks prior to the day of sale in a legal
newspaper published nearest the land and in the newspaper designated for
the publication of the official proceedings and legal notices within the
county in which said land is situated. No grant or patent for such
lands shall issue until payment is made for the same; provided that the
land contracted to be sold by the state shall be subject to taxation
from the date of the contract. In case the taxes assessed against any of
said lands for any year remain unpaid until the first Monday in October
of the following year, the contract of sale for such land shall, if the
board of university and school lands so determine, by it, be declared
null and void. No contract of sale heretofore made under the provisions
of this section of the constitution as then providing shall be affected
by this amendment, except prepayment of principal may be made as herein
provided.
Any of said lands that may be required for townsite purposes,
schoolhouse sites, church sites, cemetery sites, sites for other
educational or charitable institutions, public parks, airplane landing
fields, fairgrounds, public highways, railroad right of way, or other
railroad uses and purposes, reservoirs for the storage of water for
irrigation, irrigation canals, and ditches, drainage ditches, or for any
of the purposes for which private lands may be taken under the right of
eminent domain under the constitution and laws of this state, may be
sold under the provisions of this article, and shall be paid for in full
at the time of sale, or at any time thereafter as herein provided. Any
of said lands and any other lands controlled by the board of university
and school lands, including state coal mineral interests, may, with the
approval of said board, be exchanged for lands and coal mineral
interests of the United States, the state of North Dakota or any county
or municipality thereof as the legislature may provide, and the lands so
acquired shall be subject to the trust to which the lands exchanged
therefor were subject, and the state shall reserve all mineral and water
power rights in land so transferred, except coal mineral interests
approved for exchange by the board of university and school lands under
this section.
When any of said lands have been heretofore or may be hereafter sold on
contract, and the purchaser or his heirs or assigns is unable to pay in
full for the land purchased within twenty years after the date of
purchase and such contract is in default and subject to being declared
null and void as by law provided, the board of university and school
lands may, after declaring such contract null and void, resell the land
described in such contract to such purchaser, his heirs or assigns, for
the amount of the unpaid principal, together with interest thereon
reckoned to the date of such resale at the rate of not less than three
(3%) percent, but in no case shall the resale price be more than the
original sale price; such contract of resale shall be upon the terms
herein provided, provided this section shall be deemed self-executing
insofar as the provisions for resale herein made are concerned.
=== Section 7. ===
All lands received by the state for any specific educational or
charitable institution shall be appraised and sold in the same manner
and under the same limitations and subject to all the conditions as to
price and sale as provided in this constitution for the appraisal and
sale of lands for the benefit of common schools. However, a distinct and
separate account shall be kept by the proper officers of each of said
funds and the limitations as to the time in which school land may be
sold shall apply only to lands granted for the support of common
schools.
=== Section 8. ===
The legislative assembly shall have authority to provide by law for the leasing
of lands granted to the state for educational and charitable purposes; but no such law shall
authorize the leasing of said lands for a longer period than five years. Said lands shall only be
leased for pasturage and meadow purposes and at a public auction after notice as heretofore
provided in case of sale; provided, that all of said school lands now under cultivation may be
leased, at the discretion and under the control of the board of university and school lands, for
other than pasturage and meadow purposes until sold. All rents shall be paid in advance.
Provided, further, that coal lands may also be leased for agricultural cultivation upon such
terms and conditions and for such a period, not exceeding five years, as the legislature may
provide.
=== Section 9. ===
No law shall ever be passed by the legislative assembly granting to any
person, corporation or association any privileges by reason of the
occupation, cultivation or improvement of any public lands by said
person, corporation or association subsequent to the survey thereof by
the general government. No claim for the occupation, cultivation or
improvement of any public lands shall ever be recognized, nor shall such
occupation, cultivation or improvement of any public lands ever be used
to diminish either directly or indirectly, the purchase price of said
lands.
=== Section 10. ===
The legislative assembly may provide by law for the sale or disposal of
all public lands that have been, or may hereafter be granted by the
United States to the state for purposes other than set forth in article
IX, section 1. The legislative assembly in providing for the appraisal,
sale, rental, and disposal of the same shall not be subject to the
provisions and limitations of article IX, sections 1 through 11.
=== Section 11. ===
The legislative assembly shall pass suitable laws for the safekeeping,
transfer and disbursement of the state school funds; and shall require
all officers charged with the same or the safekeeping thereof to give
ample bonds for all moneys and funds received by them, and if any of
said officers shall convert to his own use in any manner or form, or
shall loan with or without interest or shall deposit in his own name, or
otherwise than in the name of the state of North Dakota, or shall
deposit in any banks or with any person or persons, or exchange for
other funds or property any portion of the school funds aforesaid or
purposely allow any portion of the same to remain in his own hands
uninvested, except in the manner prescribed by law, every such act shall
constitute an embezzlement of so much of the aforesaid school funds as
shall be thus taken or loaned, or deposited, or exchanged, or withheld
and shall be a felony; and any failure to pay over, produce or account
for, the state school funds or any part of the same entrusted to any
such officer, as by law required or demanded, shall be held and be taken
to be prima facie evidence of such embezzlement.
=== Section 12. ===
The following public institutions of the state are permanently located
at the places hereinafter named, each to have the lands specifically
granted to it by the United States in the Act of Congress approved
February 22, 1889, to be disposed of and used in such manner as the
legislative assembly may prescribe subject to the limitations provided
in the article on school and public lands contained in this
constitution.
1. The seat of government at the city of Bismarck in the county of
Burleigh.
2. The state university and the school of mines at the city of Grand
Forks, in the county of Grand Forks.
3. The North Dakota state university of agriculture and applied science
at the city of Fargo, in the county of Cass.
4. A state normal school at the city of Valley City, in the county of
Barnes, and the legislative assembly, in apportioning the grant of
eighty thousand acres of land for normal schools made in the Act of
Congress referred to shall grant to the said normal school at Valley
City, as aforementioned, fifty thousand (50,000) acres, and said lands
are hereby appropriated to said institution for that purpose.
5. The school for the deaf and dumb of North Dakota at the city of
Devils Lake, in the county of Ramsey.
6. A state training school at the city of Mandan, in the county of
Morton.
7. A state normal school at the city of Mayville, in the county of
Traill, and the legislative assembly in apportioning the grant of lands
made by Congress in the Act aforesaid for state normal schools shall
assign thirty thousand (30,000) acres to the institution hereby located
at Mayville, and said lands are hereby appropriated for said purpose.
8. A state hospital for the insane at the city of Jamestown, in the
county of Stutsman. And the legislative assembly shall appropriate
twenty thousand acres of the grant of lands made by the Act of Congress
aforesaid for other educational and charitable institutions to the
benefit and for the endowment of said institution, and there shall be
located at or near the city of Grafton, in the county of Walsh, an
institution for the feebleminded, on the grounds purchased by the
secretary of the interior for a penitentiary building.
=== Section 13. ===
The following public institutions are located as provided, each to have
so much of the remaining grant of one hundred seventy thousand acres of
land made by the United States for "other educational and charitable
institutions" as is allotted by law:
1. A soldiers' home, when located, or such other charitable institution
as the legislative assembly may determine, at the city of Lisbon in the
county of Ransom, with a grant of forty thousand acres of land.
2. The school for the blind at the city of Grand Forks in the county of
Grand Forks or at such other location as may be determined by the
legislative assembly to be in the best interests of the students of such
institution and the state of North Dakota.
3. A school of forestry, or such other institution as the legislative
assembly may determine, at such place in one of the counties of McHenry,
Ward, Bottineau, or Rolette, as the electors of said counties may
determine by an election for that purpose, to be held as provided by the
legislative assembly.
4. A school of science or such other educational or charitable
institution as the legislative assembly may prescribe, at the city of
Wahpeton in the county of Richland, with a grant of forty thousand
acres.
5. A state college at the city of Minot in the county of Ward.
6. A state college at the city of Dickinson in the county of Stark.
7. A state hospital for the mentally ill at such place within this state
as shall be selected by the legislative assembly.
No other institution of a character similar to any one of those located
by article IX, section 12, or this section shall be established or
maintained without an amendment of this constitution.
====== ARTICLE X. Finance and Public Debt. ======
=== Section 1. ===
The legislative assembly shall be prohibited from raising revenue to
defray the expenses of the state through the levying of a tax on the
assessed value of real or personal property.
=== Section 2. ===
The power of taxation shall never be surrendered or suspended by any
grant or contract to which the state or any county or other municipal
corporation shall be a party.
=== Section 3. ===
No tax shall be levied except in pursuance of law, and every law imposing a tax
shall state distinctly the object of the same, to which only it shall be applied. Notwithstanding
the foregoing or any other provisions of this constitution, the legislative assembly, in any law
imposing a tax or taxes on, in respect to or measured by income, may define the income on, in
respect to or by which such tax or taxes are imposed or measured or may define the tax itself
by reference to any provision of the laws of the United States as the same may be or become
effective at any time or from time to time, and may prescribe exceptions or modifications to any
such provision.
=== Section 4. ===
All taxable property except as hereinafter in this section provided,
shall be assessed in the county, city, township, village or district in
which it is situated, in the manner prescribed by law. The property,
including franchises of all railroads operated in this state, and of all
express companies, freight line companies, dining car companies,
sleeping car companies, car equipment companies, or private car line
companies, telegraph or telephone companies, the property of any person,
firm or corporation used for the purpose of furnishing electric light,
heat or power, or in distributing the same for public use, and the
property of any other corporation, firm or individual now or hereafter
operating in this state, and used directly or indirectly in the carrying
of persons, property or messages, shall be assessed by the state board
of equalization in a manner prescribed by such state board or commission
as may be provided by law. But should any railroad allow any portion of
its railway to be used for any purpose other than the operation of a
railroad thereon, such portion of its railway, while so used shall be
assessed in a manner provided for the assessment of other real property.
=== Section 5. ===
Taxes shall be uniform upon the same class of property including
franchises within the territorial limits of the authority levying the
tax. The legislative assembly may by law exempt any or all classes of
personal property from taxation and within the meaning of this section,
fixtures, buildings and improvements of every character, whatsoever,
upon land shall be deemed personal property. The property of the United
States, to the extent immunity from taxation has not been waived by an
act of Congress, property of the state, county, and municipal
corporations, to the extent immunity from taxation has not been waived
by an act of the legislative assembly, and property used exclusively for
schools, religious, cemetery, charitable or other public purposes shall
be exempt from taxation. Except as restricted by this article, the
legislative assembly may provide for raising revenue and fixing the
situs of all property for the purpose of taxation. Provided that all
taxes and exemptions in force when this amendment is adopted shall
remain in force until otherwise provided by statute.
=== Section 6. ===
The legislative assembly may provide for the levy, collection and
disposition of an annual poll tax of not more than one dollar and
fifty cents on every male inhabitant of this state over twenty-one and
under fifty years of age, except paupers, idiots, insane persons and
Indians not taxed.
=== Section 7. ===
The legislature may by law provide for the levy and collection of an
acreage tax on lands within the state in addition to the limitations
specified in article X, section 1, of the constitution. The proceeds of
such tax shall be used to indemnify the owners of growing crops against
damages by hail, provided that lands used exclusively for public roads,
rights of way of common carriers, mining, manufacturing or pasturage may
be exempt from such tax.
=== Section 8. ===
The legislative assembly shall pass all laws necessary to carry out the
provisions of this article.
=== Section 9. ===
The legislative assembly may provide for the levy of a tax upon lands
within the state for the purpose of creating a fund to insure the owners
of growing crops against losses by hail. The legislative assembly may
classify lands within the state, and divide the state into districts on
such basis as shall seem just and necessary, and may vary the tax rates
in such districts in accordance with the risk, in order to secure an
equitable distribution of the burden of the tax among the owners of such
lands.
=== Section 10. ===
1. Upon the adoption of this amendment to the Constitution of the State
of North Dakota there shall be annually levied by the state of North
Dakota one mill upon all of the taxable property within the state of
North Dakota which, when collected, shall be covered into the state
treasury of the state of North Dakota and placed to the credit of the
North Dakota state medical center at the university of North Dakota;
said fund shall be expended as the legislature shall direct for the
development and maintenance necessary to the efficient operation of the
said North Dakota state medical center.
2. This amendment shall be self-executing, but legislation may be
enacted to facilitate its operation.
=== Section 11. ===
Revenue from gasoline and other motor fuel excise and license taxation,
motor vehicle registration and license taxes, except revenue from
aviation gasoline and unclaimed aviation motor fuel refunds and other
aviation motor fuel excise and license taxation used by aircraft, after
deduction of cost of administration and collection authorized by
legislative appropriation only, and statutory refunds, shall be
appropriated and used solely for construction, reconstruction, repair
and maintenance of public highways, and the payment of obligations
incurred in the construction, reconstruction, repair and maintenance of
public highways.
=== Section 12. ===
1. All public moneys, from whatever source derived, shall be paid over
monthly by the public official, employee, agent, director, manager,
board, bureau, or institution of the state receiving the same, to the
state treasurer, and deposited by him to the credit of the state, and
shall be paid out and disbursed only pursuant to appropriation first
made by the legislature; provided, however, that there is hereby
appropriated the necessary funds required in the financial transactions
of the Bank of North Dakota, and required for the payment of losses,
duly approved, payable from the state hail insurance fund, state bonding
fund, and state fire and tornado fund, and required for the payment of
compensation to injured employees or death claims, duly approved,
payable from the workmen's compensation fund, and required for
authorized investments made by the board of university and school lands,
and required for the financial operations of the state mill and elevator
association, and required for the payment of interest and principal of
bonds and other fixed obligations of the state, and required for
payments required by law to be paid to beneficiaries of the teachers'
insurance and retirement fund, and required for refunds made under the
provisions of the Retail Sales Tax Act, and the State Income Tax Law,
and the State Gasoline Tax Law, and the Estate and Succession Tax Law,
and the income of any state institution derived from permanent trust
funds, and the funds allocated under the law to the state highway
department and the various counties for the construction,
reconstruction, and maintenance of public roads.
This constitutional amendment shall not be construed to apply to fees
and moneys received in connection with the licensing and organization of
physicians and surgeons, pharmacists, dentists, osteopaths,
optometrists, embalmers, barbers, lawyers, veterinarians, nurses,
chiropractors, accountants, architects, hairdressers, chiropodists, and
other similarly organized, licensed trades and professions; and this
constitutional amendment shall not be construed to amend or repeal
existing laws or Acts amendatory thereof concerning such fees and
moneys.
2. No bills, claims, accounts, or demands against the state or any
county or other political subdivision shall be audited, allowed, or paid
until a full itemized statement in writing shall be filed with the
officer or officers whose duty it may be to audit the same, and then
only upon warrant drawn upon the treasurer of such funds by the proper
officer or officers.
3. This amendment shall become effective on July 1, 1939.
=== Section 13. ===
The state may issue or guarantee the payment of bonds, provided that all
bonds in excess of two million dollars shall be secured by first
mortgage upon real estate in amounts not to exceed sixty-five percent of
its value; or upon real and personal property of state-owned utilities,
enterprises, or industries, in amounts not exceeding its value, and
provided further, that the state shall not issue or guarantee bonds upon
property of state-owned utilities, enterprises, or industries in excess
of ten million dollars. No further indebtedness shall be incurred by
the state unless evidenced by a bond issue, which shall be authorized by
law for certain purposes, to be clearly defined. Every law authorizing a
bond issue shall provide for levying an annual tax, or make other
provision, sufficient to pay the interest semiannually, and the
principal within thirty years from the date of the issue of such bonds
and shall specially appropriate the proceeds of such tax, or of such
other provisions to the payment of said principal and interest, and such
appropriation shall not be repealed nor the tax or other provisions
discontinued until such debt, both principal and interest, shall have
been paid. No debt in excess of the limit named herein shall be incurred
except for the purpose of repelling invasion, suppressing insurrection,
defending the state in time of war or to provide for the public defense
in case of threatened hostilities.
=== Section 14. ===
1. Notwithstanding any other provision in the constitution, and for the
purpose of promoting the economic growth of the state, the development
of its natural resources, and the prosperity and welfare of its people,
the state may issue bonds and use the proceeds thereof to make loans to
privately or cooperatively owned enterprises to plan, construct,
acquire, equip, improve, and extend facilities for converting natural
resources into power and generating and transmitting such power, and to
acquire real and personal property and water and mineral rights needed
for such facilities.
2. The state may issue general obligation bonds for this purpose to an
amount which, with all outstanding general obligation bonds, less the
amount of all money on hand and taxes in process of collection which are
appropriated for their payment, will not exceed five percent of the full
and true value of all of the taxable property in the state, to be
ascertained by the last assessment made for state and county purposes:
but nothing herein shall increase or diminish the limitations
established by other provisions of the constitution on the amount of
bonds therein authorized to be issued.
3. The state may also issue revenue bonds for the purpose of providing
part or all of the funds required for any project undertaken under
subsection 1, payable solely from sums realized from payments of
principal and interest on money loaned for such project, and from other
similar projects if so determined by the legislature, and from the
liquidation of security given for such payments. Revenue bonds issued
for any project shall not exceed the cost thereof, including all
expenses reasonably incurred to complete and finance the project, but
shall not be subject to any other limitation of amount.
4. The full faith and credit of the state shall be pledged for the
prompt and full payment of all bonds issued under subsection 2. Its
obligation with respect to bonds issued under subsection 3 shall be
limited to the prompt and full performance of such covenants as the
legislature may authorize to be made respecting the enforcing of the
provisions of underlying loan agreements and the segregation,
accounting, and application of bond proceeds and of loan payments and
other security pledged for the payment of the bonds. All bonds
authorized by subsections 1 to 3, inclusive, shall mature within forty
years from their respective dates of issue, but may be refunded at or
before maturity in such manner and for such term and upon such
conditions as the legislature may direct. Any such bonds may, but need
not be, secured by mortgage upon real or personal property acquired with
the proceeds of the same or any other issue of general obligation or
revenue bonds, or upon other property mortgaged by the debtor. Pledges
of revenues and mortgages of property securing bonds of any issue may be
prior or subordinate to or on a parity with pledges and mortgages
securing any other issue of general obligation or revenue bonds, as
determined by the legislature from time to time in conformity with any
provisions made for the security of outstanding bonds.
5. The legislature shall pass such laws as are appropriate to implement
this amendment.
6. If any subsection of this amendment, or any part of a subsection, or
any application thereof to particular circumstances should be held
invalid for any reason, such invalidity shall not affect the validity of
all remaining provisions of this amendment which may be given effect
without that which is declared invalid, as applied to any circumstances
and for this purpose all subsections and parts of subsections and
applications thereof are declared to be severable.
=== Section 15. ===
The debt of any county, township, city, town, school district or any
other political subdivision, shall never exceed five per centum upon the
assessed value of the taxable property therein; provided that any
incorporated city may, by a two-thirds vote, increase such indebtedness
three per centum on such assessed value beyond said five per centum
limit, and a school district, by a majority vote may increase such
indebtedness five percent on such assessed value beyond said five per
centum limit; provided also that any county or city by a majority vote
may issue bonds upon any revenue-producing utility owned by such county
or city, or for the purchasing or acquiring the same or building or
establishment thereof, in amounts not exceeding the physical value of
such utility, industry or enterprise. In estimating the indebtedness
which a city, county, township, school district or any other political
subdivision may incur, the entire amount, exclusive of the bonds upon
said revenue-producing utilities, whether contracted prior or subsequent
to the adoption of this constitution, shall be included; provided
further that any incorporated city may become indebted in any amount not
exceeding four per centum of such assessed value without regard to the
existing indebtedness of such city for the purpose of constructing or
purchasing waterworks for furnishing a supply of water to the
inhabitants of such city, or for the purpose of constructing sewers, and
for no other purposes whatever. All bonds and obligations in excess of
the amount of indebtedness permitted by this constitution, given by any
city, county, township, town, school district, or any other political
subdivision shall be void.
=== Section 16. ===
Any city, county, township, town, school district or any other political
subdivision incurring indebtedness shall, at or before the time of so
doing, provide for the collection of an annual tax sufficient to pay the
interest and also the principal thereof when due, and all laws or
ordinances providing for the payment of the interest or principal of any
debt shall be irrepealable until such debt be paid.
=== Section 17. ===
No bond or evidence of indebtedness of the state is valid unless it has
endorsed thereon a certificate, signed by the auditor and secretary of
state showing that the bond or evidence of debt is issued pursuant to
law and is within the debt limit. No bond or evidence of debt of any
county, or bond of any township or other political subdivision is valid
unless it has endorsed thereon a certificate signed by the officer
authorized by law to sign such certificate, stating that said bond or
evidence of debt is issued pursuant to law and is within the debt limit.
=== Section 18. ===
The state, any county or city may make internal improvements and may
engage in any industry, enterprise or business not prohibited by Article
XX of the Constitution, but neither the state nor any political
subdivision thereof shall otherwise loan or give its credit or make
donations to or in aid of any individual, association or corporation
except for reasonable support of the poor, nor subscribe to or become
the owner of capital stock in any association or corporation.
[Amended Nov. 5, 1918]
=== Section 19. ===
The legislative assembly is hereby authorized and empowered to provide
by law for the erection, purchasing or leasing and operation of one or
more terminal grain elevators in the states of Minnesota or Wisconsin,
or both, to be maintained and operated in such manner as the legislative
assembly shall prescribe, and provide for inspection, weighing and
grading of all grain received in such elevator or elevators.
=== Section 20. ===
The legislative assembly is hereby authorized and empowered to provide by
law for the erection, purchasing or leasing and operation of one or more
terminal grain elevators in the state of North Dakota, to be maintained
and operated in such manner as the legislative assembly shall prescribe,
and provide for inspection, weighing and grading of all grain received
in such elevator or elevators.
=== Section 21. ===
Not less than fifteen percent of the tax imposed for severing coal shall
be placed into a permanent trust fund in the state treasury to be held
in trust and administered by the board of university and school lands,
which shall have full authority to invest said trust funds as provided
by law, and may loan moneys from the fund to political subdivisions as
provided by law. The interest earned on the moneys in said trust fund
shall be used first to replace uncollectable loans made from the fund,
and the balance shall be credited to the general fund of the state. Up
to fifty percent of the taxes collected and deposited in the permanent
trust fund during a biennium may be appropriated by the legislative
assembly for lignite research, development, and marketing as provided by
law.
=== Section 22. ===
The legislative assembly may provide by law for a percentage of revenue
from taxes imposed on the extraction or production of oil to be
allocated and credited to a special trust fund, to be known as the
resources trust fund. The principal and income of the resources trust
fund may be expended only pursuant to legislative appropriation for:
1. Constructing water-related projects, including rural water systems;
and
2. Funding of programs for energy conservation.
=== Section 25. ===
The veterans' postwar trust fund shall be a permanent trust fund of the
state of North Dakota and shall consist of moneys transferred or
credited to the fund as authorized by legislative enactment. Investment
of the fund shall be the responsibility of the state treasurer who shall
have full authority to invest the fund only in the same manner as the
state investment board is authorized to make investments. All income
received from investments is to be utilized for programs which must be
of benefit and service to veterans, who are defined by legislative
enactment, or their dependents, and such income is hereby appropriated
to the administrative committee on veterans' affairs on a continuing
basis for expenditure upon those programs selected at the discretion of
the administrative committee on veterans' affairs.
[ [[https://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/55-1997/ranch/SL7INITM.pdf#page=3|Adopted Nov. 5, 1996]], effective Dec. 5, 1996]
====== ARTICLE XI. General Provisions. ======
=== Section 1. ===
The name of this state shall be "North Dakota." The state of North
Dakota shall consist of all the territory included within the following
boundary, to wit: Commencing at a point in the main channel of the Red
River of the North, where the forty-ninth degree of north latitude
crosses the same; thence south up the main channel of the same and along
the boundary line of the state of Minnesota to a point where the seventh
standard parallel intersects the same; thence west along said seventh
standard parallel produced due west to a point where it intersects the
twenty-seventh meridian of longitude west from Washington; thence north
on said meridian to a point where it intersects the forty-ninth degree
of north latitude; thence east along said line to place of beginning.
=== Section 2. ===
The following described seal is hereby declared to be and hereby
constituted the great seal of the state of North Dakota, to wit: A tree
in the open field, the trunk of which is surrounded by three bundles of
wheat; on the right a plow, anvil and sledge; on the left, a bow crossed
with three arrows, and an Indian on horseback pursuing a buffalo toward
the setting sun; the foliage of the tree arched by a half circle of
forty-two stars, surrounded by the motto "Liberty and Union Now and
Forever, One and Inseparable"; the words "Great Seal" at the top; the
words "State of North Dakota" at the bottom; "October 1st" on the left
and "1889" on the right. The seal to be two and one-half inches in
diameter.
=== Section 3. ===
All flowing streams and natural watercourses shall forever remain the
property of the state for mining, irrigating and manufacturing purposes.
=== Section 4. ===
Members of the legislative assembly and judicial
department, except such inferior officers as may be by law exempted shall,
before they enter on the duties of their respective offices, take
and subscribe the following oath or affirmation: "I do solemnly swear
(or affirm as the case may be) that I will support the Constitution of
the United States and the Constitution of the State of North Dakota; and
that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of _________
according to the best of my ability, so help me God" (if an oath),
(under pains and penalties of perjury) if an affirmation, and no other
oath, declaration, or test shall be required as a qualification for
any office or public trust.
=== Section 5. ===
Unless otherwise provided by law, all meetings of public or governmental
bodies, boards, bureaus, commissions, or agencies of the state or any
political subdivision of the state, or organizations or agencies
supported in whole or in part by public funds, or expending public
funds, shall be open to the public.
=== Section 6. ===
Unless otherwise provided by law, all records of public or governmental
bodies, boards, bureaus, commissions, or agencies of the state or any
political subdivision of the state, or organizations or agencies
supported in whole or in part by public funds, or expending public
funds, shall be public records, open and accessible for inspection
during reasonable office hours.
=== Section 7. ===
The legislative assembly, in order to ensure continuity of state and
local governmental operations in periods of emergency resulting from
disasters caused by enemy attack, shall have the power and immediate
duty (1) to provide for prompt and temporary succession to the powers
and duties of public offices, of whatever nature and whether filled by
election or appointment, the incumbents of which may become unavailable
for carrying on the powers and duties of such offices, and (2) to adopt
such other measures as may be necessary and proper for ensuring the
continuity of governmental operations including, but not limited to,
waiver of constitutional restrictions upon the place of transaction of
governmental business, upon the calling of sessions of the legislative
assembly, length of sessions, quorum and voting requirements, subjects
of legislation and appropriation bill requirements, upon eligibility of
legislators to hold other offices, residence requirements for
legislators, and upon expenditures, loans or donations of public moneys.
In the exercise of the powers hereby conferred the legislative assembly
shall in all respects conform to the requirements of this constitution
except to the extent that in the judgment of the legislative assembly so
to do would be impracticable or would admit of undue delay.
=== Section 8. ===
The house of representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment.
The concurrence of a majority of all members elected shall be necessary
to an impeachment.
=== Section 9. ===
All impeachments shall be tried by the senate. When sitting for that
purpose the senators shall be upon oath or affirmation to do justice
according to the law and evidence. No person shall be convicted without
the concurrence of two-thirds of the members elected. When the governor
or lieutenant governor is on trial, the presiding judge of the supreme
court shall preside.
=== Section 10. ===
The governor and other state and judicial officers, except county
judges, justices of the peace and police magistrates, shall be liable to
impeachment for habitual drunkenness, crimes, corrupt conduct, or
malfeasance or misdemeanor in office, but judgment in such cases shall
not extend further than removal from office and disqualification to hold
any office of trust or profit under the state. The person accused,
whether convicted or acquitted, shall nevertheless be liable to
indictment, trial, judgment and punishment according to law.
=== Section 11. ===
All officers not liable to impeachment shall be subject to removal for
misconduct, malfeasance, crime or misdemeanor in office, or for habitual
drunkenness or gross incompetency in such manner as may be provided by
law.
=== Section 12. ===
No officer shall exercise the duties of his office after he shall have
been impeached and before his acquittal.
=== Section 13. ===
On trial of impeachment against the governor, the lieutenant governor
shall not act as a member of the court.
=== Section 14. ===
No person shall be tried on impeachment before he shall have been served
with a copy thereof, at least twenty days previous to the day set for
trial.
=== Section 15. ===
No person shall be liable to impeachment twice for the same offense.
=== Section 16. ===
The militia of this state shall consist of all able-bodied male persons
residing in the state, between the agesof eighteen and forty-five years, except
such as may be exempted by the laws of the United States or of this state.
Persons whose religious tenets or conscientious scruples forbid them to bear
arms shall not be compelled to do so in times of peace, but shall pay an
equivalent for a personal service.
=== Section 17. ===
The militia shall be enrolled, organized, uniformed, armed and
disciplined in such a manner as shall be provided by law, not
incompatible with the constitution or laws of the United States.
=== Section 18. ===
The legislative assembly shall provide by law for the establishment of
volunteer organizations of the several arms of the service, which shall
be classed as active militia; and no other organized body of armed men
shall be permitted to perform military duty in this state except the
army of the United States, without the proclamation of the governor of
the state.
=== Section 19. ===
All militia officers shall be appointed or elected in such a manner as
the legislative assembly shall provide.
=== Section 20. ===
The commissioned officers of the militia shall be commissioned by the
governor, and no commissioned officer shall be removed from office
except by sentence of court-martial, pursuant to law.
=== Section 21. ===
The militia forces shall in all cases, except treason, felony or breach
of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at
musters, parades and elections of officers, and in going to and
returning from the same.
=== Section 22. ===
The right of the debtor to enjoy the comforts and necessaries of life
shall be recognized by wholesome laws, exempting from forced sale to all
heads of families a homestead, the value of which shall be limited and
defined by law; and a reasonable amount of personal property; the kind
and value shall be fixed by law. This section shall not be construed to
prevent liens against the homestead for labor done and materials
furnished in the improvement thereof, in such manner as may be
prescribed by law.
=== Section 23. ===
The real and personal property of any woman in this state, acquired
before marriage, and all property to which she may, after marriage
become in any manner rightfully entitled, shall be her separate
property, and shall not be liable for the debts of her husband.
=== Section 24. ===
The labor of children under twelve years of age, shall be prohibited in
mines, factories and workshops in this state.
=== Section 25. ===
The legislative assembly shall not authorize any game of chance,
lottery, or gift enterprises, under any pretense, or for any purpose
whatever. However, the legislative assembly may authorize by law bona
fide nonprofit veterans', charitable, educational, religious, or
fraternal organizations, civic and service clubs, or such other
public-spirited organizations as it may recognize, to conduct games of
chance when the entire net proceeds of such games of chance are to be
devoted to educational, charitable, patriotic, fraternal, religious, or
other public-spirited uses.
=== Section 26. ===
The legislative, executive, and judicial branches are coequal branches
of government. Elected members and officials of each branch shall
receive as compensation for their services only such amounts as may be
specifically set by law. Payment for necessary expenses shall not exceed
those allowed for other state employees.
====== ARTICLE XII. Corporations Other than Municipal. ======
=== Section 1. ===
The term "corporation", as used in this article, shall not be understood as
embracing municipalities or political divisions of the state unless otherwise
expressly stated, but it shall be held and construed to include all
associations and joint stock companies having any of the powers or privileges
of corporations not possessed by individuals or partnerships.
=== Section 2. ===
No charter of incorporation shall be granted, changed or amended by
special law, except in the case of such municipal, charitable,
educational, penal or reformatory corporations as may be under the
control of the state; but the legislative assembly shall provide by
general laws for the organization of all corporations hereafter to be
created, and any such law, so passed, shall be subject to future
repeal or alteration.
=== Section 3. ===
All existing charters or grants of special or exclusive privileges, under which a bona fide organization shall not have taken place and business been commenced in good faith at the time this constitution takes effect, shall thereafter have no validity.
=== Section 4. ===
The legislative assembly shall not remit the forfeiture of the charter
to any corporation now existing, nor alter or amend the same, nor pass
any other general or special law for the benefit of such corporation,
except upon the condition that such corporation shall thereafter hold
its charter subject to the provisions of this constitution.
=== Section 5. ===
The exercise of the right of eminent domain shall never be abridged, or
so construed as to prevent the legislative assembly from taking the
property and franchises of incorporated companies and subjecting them to
public use; the same as the property of individuals; and the exercise of
the police power of this state shall never be abridged, or so construed
as to permit corporations to conduct their business in such a manner as
to infringe the equal rights of individuals or the general well-being of
the state.
=== Section 6. ===
In all elections for directors or managers of a corporation, each member or
shareholder may cast the whole number of his votes for one candidate, or
distribute them upon two or more candidates, as he may prefer, provided, any
cooperative corporation may adopt bylaws limiting the voting power of its
stockholders.
=== Section 7. ===
No foreign corporation shall do business in this state without having one or
more places of business and an authorized agent or agents in the same, upon
whom process may be served.
=== Section 8. ===
No corporation shall engage in any business other than that expressly
authorized in its charter.
=== Section 9. ===
No corporation shall issue stock or bonds except for money, labor done, or
money or property actually received; and all fictitious increase of stock or
indebtedness shall be void. The stock and indebtedness of corporations shall
not be increased except in pursuance of general law, nor without the consent of
the persons holding the larger amount in value of the stock first obtained.
=== Section 10. ===
No law shall be passed by the legislative assembly granting the right to
construct and operate a street railroad, telegraph, telephone or
electric light plant within any city, town or incorporated village,
without requiring the consent of the local authorities having the
control of the street or highway proposed to be occupied for such
purposes.
=== Section 11. ===
Every railroad corporation organized and doing business in this state, under
the laws or authority thereof, shall have and maintain a public office or place
in the state for the transaction of its business, where transfers of its stock
shall be made and in which shall be kept for public inspection, books in which
shall be recorded the amount of capital stock subscribed, and by whom, the
names of the owners of its stock and the amount owned by them respectively; the
amount of stock paid in and by whom, and the transfers of said stock; the
amount of its assets and liabilities and the names and place of residence of
its officers. The directors of every railroad corporation shall annually make a
report, under oath, to the auditor of public accounts, or some officer or
officers to be designated by law, of all their acts and doings, which report
shall include such matters relating to railroads as may be prescribed by law,
and the legislative assembly shall pass laws enforcing by suitable penalties
the provisions of this section; provided, the provisions of this section shall
not be so construed as to apply to foreign corporations.
=== Section 12. ===
No railroad corporation shall consolidate its stock, property or franchises
with any other railroad corporation owning a parallel or competing line; and in
no case shall any consolidation take place except upon public notice given at
least sixty days to all stockholders, in such manner as may be provided by law.
Any attempt to evade the provisions of this section, by any railroad
corporation, by lease or otherwise, shall work a forfeiture of its charter.
=== Section 13. ===
Railways heretofore constructed or that may hereafter be constructed in this
state are hereby declared public highways, and all railroad, sleeping car,
telegraph, telephone and transportation companies of passengers, intelligence
and freight, are declared to be common carriers and subject to legislative
control; and the legislative assembly shall have power to enact laws regulating
and controlling the rates of charges for the transportation of passengers,
intelligence and freight, as such common carriers from one point to another in
this state; provided, that appeal may be had to the courts of this state from
the rates so fixed; but the rates fixed by the legislative assembly or board of
railroad commissioners shall remain in force pending the decision of the
courts.
=== Section 14. ===
Any association or corporation organized for the purpose shall have the
right to construct and operate a railroad between any points within this state,
and to connect at the state line with the railroads of other states. Every
railroad company shall have the right with its road to intersect, connect with
or cross any other, and shall receive and transport each other’s passengers,
tonnage and cars, loaded or empty, without delay or discrimination.
=== Section 15. ===
If a general banking law be enacted, it shall provide for the registry and
countersigning by an officer of the state, of all notes or bills designed for
circulation, and that ample security to the full amount thereof shall be
deposited with the state treasurer for the redemption of such notes or bills.
=== Section 16. ===
Any combination between individuals, corporations, associations, or
either having for its object or effect the controlling of the price of
any product of the soil or any article of manufacture of commerce, or
the cost of exchange or transportation, is prohibited and hereby
declared unlawful and against public policy; and any and all franchises
heretofore granted or extended, or that may hereafter be granted or
extended in this state, whenever the owner or owners thereof violate
this article shall be deemed annulled and become void.
=== Section 17. ===
The exchange of "black lists" between corporations shall be prohibited.
====== ARTICLE XIII. Compact with the United States. ======
=== Section 1. ===
1. Perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured, and no
inhabitant of this state shall ever be molested in person or property
on account of his or her mode of religious worship.
2. The people inhabiting this state do agree and declare that
they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public
lands lying within the boundaries thereof, and to all lands lying
within said limits owned or held by any Indian or Indian tribes, and
that until the title thereto shall have been extinguished by the
United States, the same shall be and remain subject to the disposition
of the United States, and that said Indian lands shall remain under
the absolute jurisdiction and control of the Congress of the United
states, provided, however, that the legislative assembly of the state
of North Dakota may, upon such terms and conditions as it shall adopt,
provide for the acceptance of such jurisdiction as may be delegated to
the state by act of Congress; that the lands belonging to citizens of
the United States residing without this state shall never be taxed at
a higher rate than the lands belonging to residents of this state;
that no taxes shall be imposed by this state on lands or property
therein, belonging to, or which may hereafter be purchased by the
United States or reserved for its use. But nothing in this article
shall preclude this state from taxing as other lands are taxed, any
lands owned or held by any Indian who has severed his tribal
relations, and has obtained from the United States or from any person,
a title thereto, by patent or other grant, save and except such lands
as have been or may be granted to any Indian or Indians under any acts
of Congress containing a provision exempting the lands thus granted
from taxation, which last mentioned lands shall be exempt from
taxation so long, and to such an extent, as is, or may be provided in
the act of Congress granting the same.
3. In order that payment of the debts and liabilities contracted
or incurred by and in behalf of the Territory of Dakota may be justly
and equitably provided for and made, and in pursuance of the
requirements of an act of congress approved February 22, 1889,
entitled "An act to provide for the division of Dakota into two states
and to enable the people of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and
Washington to form constitutions and state governments and to be
admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states,
and to make donations of public lands to such states," the states of
North Dakota and South Dakota, by proceedings of a joint commission,
duly appointed under said act, the sessions whereof were held at
Bismarck in said state of North Dakota, from July 16, 1889, to July
31, 1889, inclusive, have agreed to the following adjustment of the
amounts of the debts and liabilities of the Territory of Dakota which
shall be assumed and paid by each of the states of North Dakota and
South Dakota, respectively, to-wit:
This agreement shall take effect and be in force from and after the
admission into the Union, as one of the United States of America, of
either the state of North Dakota or the state of South Dakota.
The words "state of North Dakota" wherever used in this agreement,
shall be taken to mean the Territory of North Dakota in case the state
of South Dakota shall be admitted into the Union prior to the
admission into the Union of the state of North Dakota; and the words
"state of South Dakota," wherever used in this agreement, shall be
taken to mean the Territory of South Dakota in case the state of North
Dakota shall be admitted into the Union prior to the admission into
the Union of the state of South Dakota.
The said state of North Dakota shall assume and pay all bonds issued
by the Territory of Dakota to provide funds for the purchase,
construction, repairs or maintenance of such public institutions,
grounds or buildings as are located within the boundaries of North
Dakota, and shall pay all warrants issued under and by virtue of that
certain Act of the legislative assembly of the Territory of Dakota,
approved March 8, 1889, entitled "An Act to provide for the refunding
of outstanding warrants drawn on the Capitol Building Fund."
The said state of South Dakota shall assume and pay all bonds issued
by the Territory or Dakota to provide funds for the purchase,
construction, repairs or maintenance of such public institutions,
grounds or buildings as are located within the boundaries of South
Dakota.
That is to say: The state of North Dakota shall assume and pay the
following bonds and indebtedness, to-wit:
Bonds issued on account of the Hospital for Insane at Jamestown, North
Dakota, the face aggregate of which is $266,000; also bonds issued on
account of the North Dakota University at Grand Forks, North Dakota,
the face aggregate of which is $96,700; also, bonds issued on account
of the Penitentiary at Bismarck, North Dakota, the face aggregate of
which is $93,600; also, refunding Capitol Building warrants dated
April 1, 1889, $83,507.46.
And the state of South Dakota shall assume and pay the following bonds
and indebtedness, to-wit:
Bonds issued on account of the Hospital for the Insane at Yankton,
South Dakota, the face aggregate of which is $210,000; also, bonds
issued on account of the School for Deaf Mutes, at Sioux Falls, South
Dakota, the face aggregate of which is $51,000; also, bonds issued on
account of the University at Vermillion, South Dakota, the face
aggregate of which is $75,000; also, bonds issued on account of the
Penitentiary at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the face aggregate of which
is $94,300; also, bonds issued on account of the Agricultural College
at Brookings, South Dakota, the face aggregate of which is $97,500;
also, bonds issued on account of the Normal School at Madison, South
Dakota, the face aggregate of which is $49,400; also, bonds issued on
account of the School of Mines at Rapid City, South Dakota, the face
aggregate of which is $33,000; also, bonds issued on account of the
Reform School at Plankinton, South Dakota, the face aggregate of which
is $30,000; also, bonds issued on account of the Normal School at
Spearfish, South Dakota, the face aggregate of which is $25,000; also
bonds issued on account of the Soldiers' Home at Hot Springs, South
Dakota, the face aggregate of which is $45,000.
The states of North Dakota and South Dakota shall pay one- half each
of all liabilities now existing or hereafter and prior to the taking
effect of this agreement incurred, except those hereto fore or
hereafter incurred on account of public institutions, grounds or
buildings, except as otherwise herein specifically provided.
The state of South Dakota shall pay to the state of North Dakota
$46,500, on account of the excess of Territorial appropriations for
the permanent improvement of territorial institutions which under this
agreement will go to South Dakota, and in full of the undivided
one-half interest of North Dakota in the territorial library, and iu
full settlement of unbalanced accounts, and of all claims against the
territory, of whatever nature, legal or equitable, arising out of the
alleged erroneous or unlawful taxation of Northern Pacific Railroad
lands, and the payment of said amount shall discharge and exempt the
state of South Dakota from all liability for or on account of the
several matters herein before referred to; nor shall either state be
called upon to pay or answer to any portion of liability hereafter
arising or accruing on account of transactions heretofore had, which
liability would be a liability of the Territory of Dakota had such
territory remained in existence, and which liability shall grow out of
matters connected with any public institutions, grounds or buildings
of the territory situated or located within the boundaries of the
other state.
A final adjustment of accounts shall be made upon the following basis:
North Dakota shall be charged with all sums paid on account of the
public institutions, grounds or buildings located within its
boundaries on account of the current appropriations since March 9,
1889, and South Dakota shall be charged with all sums paid on account
of public institutions, grounds or buildings located within its
boundaries on the same account and during the same time. Each state
shall be charged with one-half of all other expenses of the
territorial government during the same time. All moneys paid into the
treasury during the period from March 8, 1889, to the time of taking
effect of this agreement by any county, municipality or person within
the limits of the proposed state of North Dakota, shall be credited to
the state of North Dakota; and all sums paid into said treasury within
the same time by any county, municipality or person within the limits
of the proposed state of South Dakota shall be credited to the state
of South Dakota; except that any and all taxes on gross earnings paid
into said treasury by railroad corporations, since the 8th day of
March, 1889, based upon earnings of years prior to 1888, under and by
virtue of the act of the legislative assembly of the Territory of
Dakota, approved March 7, 1889, and entitled "An Act providing for the
levy and collection of taxes upon property of railroad companies in
this Territory," being Chapter 107 of the Session Laws of 1889, (that
is, the part of such sums going to the Territory) shall be equally
divided between the states of North Dakota and South Dakota; and all
taxes heretofore or here after paid into said treasury under and by
virtue of the act last mentioned, based on the gross earnings of the
year 1888, shall be distributed as already provided by law, except
that so much thereof as goes to the territorial treasury shall be
divided as fol lows: North Dakota shall have so much thereof as shall
be or has been paid by railroads within the limits of the proposed
state of North Dakota, and South Dakota so much thereof as shall be or
has been paid by railroads within the limits of the proposed state of
South Dakota; each state shall be credited also with all balances of
appropriations made by the Seventeenth legislative assembly of the
Territory of Dakota for the account of the public institutions,
grounds or buildings situated within its limits, remaining unexpended
on March 8, 1889. If there shall be any indebtedness except the
indebtedness represented by the bonds and refunding warrants
hereinbefore mentioned, each state shall at the time of such final
adjustment of accounts, assume its share of said indebtedness as
determined by the amount paid on account of the public institutions,
grounds or buildings of such state in excess of the receipts from
counties, municipalities, railroad corporations or persons within the
limits of said state, as provided in this article ; and if there
should be a surplus at the time of such final adjustment, each state
shall be entitled to the amounts received from counties,
municipalities, railroad corporations or persons within its limits
over and above the amount charged it.
And the state of North Dakota hereby obligates itself to pay such part
of the debts and liabilities of the Territory of Dakota as is declared
by the foregoing agreement to be its proportion thereof, the same as
if such proportion had been originally created by said state of North
Dakota as its own debt or liability.
[[[https://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1959/pdf/CAA.pdf|Amended Jun. 24, 1958]], effective Jul. 24, 1958]
=== Section 2. ===
Jurisdiction is ceded to the United States over the military
reservations of Fort Abraham Lincoln, Fort Buford, Fort Pembina and
Fort Totten, heretofore declared by the President of the United
states; Provided, Legal process, civil and criminal, of this state,
shall extend over such reservations in all cases in which exclusive
jurisdiction is not vested in the United States, or of crimes not
committed within the limits of such reservations.
=== Section 3. ===
The state of North Dakota hereby accepts the several grants of land
granted by the United States to the state of North Dakota by an Act of
Congress entitled "An act to provide for the division of Dakota into two
states, and to enable the people of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana
and Washington to form constitutions and state governments, and to be
admitted into the union on equal footing with the original states, and
to make donations of public lands to such states," under the conditions
and limitations therein mentioned; reserving the right, however, to
apply to Congress for modification of said conditions and limitations in
case of necessity.
====== TRANSITION SCHEDULE ======
Sections 1 to 25. Repealed.
Section 26. The legislative assembly shall provide for the editing, and for the publication in
an independent volume, of this constitution as soon as it shall take effect, and whenever it
shall be altered or amended, and shall cause to be published in the same volume the
Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and the Enabling Act.
====== The Enabling Act ======
([[https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/50th-congress/session-2/c50s2ch180.pdf|Act of February 22, 1889, Ch. 180, 25 Statutes at Large 676.]])
An act to provide for the division of Dakota into two states, and to enable the
people of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington to form
constitutions and state governments, and to be admitted into the union on an
equal footing with the original states, and to make donations of public lands
to such states.
Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the United States
of America in Congress assembled, that the inhabitants of all that part of the
area of the United States now constituting the territories of Dakota, Montana,
and Washington, as at present described, may become the states of North Dakota,
South Dakota, Montana, and Washington respectively, as hereinafter provided.
=== Section 2. ===
The area comprising the territory of Dakota shall, for the purposes
of this act, be divided on the line of the seventh standard parallel produced
due west to the western boundary of said territory; and the delegates elected
as hereinafter provided to the constitutional convention in districts north of
said parallel shall assemble in convention, at the time prescribed in this act,
at the city of Bismarck; and the delegates elected in districts south of said
parallel shall, at the same time, assemble in convention at the city of Sioux
Falls.
=== Section 3. ===
That all persons who are qualified by the laws of said territories
to vote for representatives to the legislative assemblies thereof, are hereby
authorized to vote for and choose delegates to form conventions in said
proposed states; and the qualifications for delegates to such conventions shall
be such as by the laws of said territories, respectively, persons, are required
to possess to be eligible to the legislative assemblies thereof, and the
aforesaid delegates to form said conventions shall be apportioned within the
limits of the proposed states, in such districts as may be established as
herein provided, in proportion to the population in each of said counties and
districts, as near as may be, to be ascertained at the time of making said
apportionments by the persons hereinafter authorized to make the same, from the
best information obtainable, in each of which districts three delegates shall
be elected, but no elector shall vote for more than two persons for delegates
to such conventions; that said apportionments shall be made by the Governor,
the chief justice and the secretary of said territories; and the governors of
said territories shall, by proclamation, order an election of the delegates
aforesaid in each of said proposed states, to be held on the Tuesday after the
second Monday in May, 1889, which proclamation shall be issued on the fifteenth
day of April 1889; and such election shall be conducted, the returns made, the
result ascertained and the certificates to persons elected to such conventions
issued in the same manner as is prescribed by the laws of the said territories
regulating elections therein for delegates to Congress; and the number of votes
cast for delegates in each precinct shall also be returned. The number of
delegates to said conventions respectively, shall be seventy-five; and all
persons resident in said proposed states, who are qualified voters of said
territories as herein provided, shall be entitled to vote upon the election of
delegates, and under such rules and regulations as said conventions may
prescribe, not in conflict with this act, upon the ratification or rejection of
the constitutions.
=== Section 4. ===
That the delegates to the conventions elected as provided for in
this act shall meet at the seat of government of each of said territories,
except the delegates elected in South Dakota, who shall meet at the city of
Sioux Falls, on the fourth day of July, 1889, and, after organization, shall
declare on behalf of the people of said proposed states, that they adopt the
Constitution of the United States; whereupon the said conventions shall be, and
are hereby authorized to form constitutions and state governments for said
proposed states, respectively. The Constitution shall be republican in form,
and make no distinction in civil or political rights on account of race or
color, except as to Indians not taxed, and not be repugnant to the Constitution
of the United States and the principles of the Declaration of Independence. And
said convention shall provide by ordinances irrevocable without the consent of
the United States and the people of said states:
First. That perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured, and
that no inhabitant of said states shall ever be molested in person or property
on account of his or her mode of religious worship.
Second. That the people inhabiting said proposed states do agree and declare
that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public
lands lying within the boundaries thereof, and to all lands lying within said
limits owned or held by any Indian or Indian tribes; and that until the title
thereto shall have been extinguished by the United States, the same shall be
and remain subject to the disposition of the United States, and said Indian
lands shall remain under the absolute jurisdiction and control of the Congress
of the United States; that the lands belonging to citizens of the United States
residing without the said states shall never be taxed at a higher rate than the
lands belonging to residents thereof; that no taxes shall be imposed by the
states on lands or property therein belonging to or which may hereafter be
purchased by the United States or reserved for its use. But nothing herein, or
in the ordinances herein provided for, shall preclude the said states from
taxing as other lands are taxed any lands owned or held by any Indian who has
severed his tribal relations, and has obtained from the United States or from
any person a title thereto by patent or other grant, save and except such lands
as have been or may be granted to any Indian or Indians under any act of
Congress containing a provision exempting the lands thus granted from taxation;
but said ordinances shall provide that all such lands shall be exempt from
taxation by said states so long and to such extent as such act of Congress may
prescribe.
Third. That the debts and liabilities of said territories shall be assumed and
paid by said states, respectively.
Fourth. That provision shall be made for the establishment and maintenance of
systems of public schools, which shall be open to all the children of said
states, and free from sectarian control.
=== Indian Lands. ===
== -Federal Jurisdiction and Control. ==
Since jurisdiction and control of Indian lands remains in the United States
under section 4 of the Enabling Act, congress could enact an act making
criminal the introduction of intoxicating liquor upon an allotment within the
limits of an Indian reservation. United States v. Sutton, [[https://courtlistener.com/c/U.S./215/291/|215 U.S. 291]], 30 S.Ct. 116, 54 L. Ed. 200 (1909).
Lands within South Dakota which were formerly a part of an Indian reservation
and not restored to the public domain and open to settlement, but held by an
Indian allottee under a trust patent, are Indian lands over which the United
States has exclusive jurisdiction. Ex Parte Van Moore, 221 F. 954 (D. S.D. 1915).
Under the Enabling Act and the disclaimer provision in the Constitution of
South Dakota, not only lands, but all other property issued by the United
States government to Indian allottees for use thereon, remained subject to
federal control until Congress relinquished the trust. United States v.
Pearson, 231 F. 270 (D.S.D. 1916).
Whether Indian pantentees of land in a reservation, created by Indian treaty,
took to high or low watermark of a lake was not a question of state law.
Montana Power Co. v. Rochester, [[https://courtlistener.com/c/F.2d/127/189/|127 F.2d 189]] (9th Cir. 1942).
== -Jurisdiction of State. ==
The compact between the United States and North Dakota created by section 4 of
the Enabling Act and art. XIII, sec. 1 of the state Constitution did not
reserve to the United States exclusive jurisdiction of civil causes of action
not involving lands, between Indians residing on reservations. Vermilion v.
Spotted Elk, [[https://links.casemakerlegal.com/docid/3777337?bookname=public_url&ci=95|85 N.W.2d 432]] (N.D. 1957).
== -Voting Rights of Indians. ==
It was the duty of county commissioners to establish a voting precinct within
or for a territory situated within the county limits and also within the limits
of an Indian reservation, where the territory had, under an act of Congress,
been allotted to certain Indians and they were living upon the allotments and
farming the same. State ex rel. Tompton v. Denoyer, [[https://links.casemakerlegal.com/docid/3777338?bookname=public_url&ci=95|6 N.D. 586]], 72 N.W. 1014
(1897).
== Schools and School Districts ==
An act of the territorial legislature organizing an independent school district
was subject to amendment by the state legislature. Jones v. Brightwood Indep.
Sch. Dist., [[https://links.casemakerlegal.com/docid/3777341?bookname=public_url&ci=95|63 N.D. 275]], 247 N.W. 884 (1933).
== State Political and Governmental Control. ==
Section 4, subdivision 2, of the Enabling Act and the compact embraced in art.
XIII, sec. 1 of the state Constitution, vested in the state all jurisdiction
not expressly reserved in the Congress of the United States, over certain
territory embraced in what is known as the Ft. Berthold Indian reservation.
State ex rel. Baker v. Mountrail County, [[https://links.casemakerlegal.com/docid/3777342?bookname=public_url&ci=95|28 N.D. 389]], 149 N.W. 120 (1914).
The state may rightfully exercise political and governmental control over lands
formerly within a military reservation and reserved by the United States for
Indian school and Indian agency purposes, to the extent of including them
within its political subdivisions for political and governmental purposes. La
Duke v. Melin, [[https://links.casemakerlegal.com/docid/3777343?bookname=public_url&ci=95|45 N.D. 349]], 177 N.W. 673 (1920).
== Unappropriated Public Lands. ==
The beds of navigable streams are not "unappropriated public lands" included
within the disclaimer of title contained in section 4 of the Enabling Act.
State v. Loy, [[https://links.casemakerlegal.com/docid/1661851?bookname=public_url&ci=95|74 N.D. 182]], 20 N.W.2d 668 (1945).
Section 5. That the convention which shall assemble at Bismarck shall form a
Constitution and state government for a state to be known as North Dakota, and
the convention which shall assemble at Sioux Falls shall form a Constitution
and state government for a state to be known as South Dakota; provided, that at
the election for delegates to the constitutional convention in South Dakota, as
hereinbefore provided, each elector may have written or printed on his ballot,
the words, "For the Sioux Falls Constitution," or the words, "Against the Sioux
Falls Constitution," and the votes on this question shall be returned and
canvassed in the same manner as for the election provided for in section 3 of
this act; and if a majority of all votes cast on this question shall be "For
the Sioux Falls Constitution," it shall be the duty of the convention which may
assemble at Sioux Falls, as herein provided, to resubmit to the people of South
Dakota, for ratification or rejection, at the election hereinafter provided for
in this act, the Constitution framed at Sioux Falls, and adopted November 3,
1885, and also the articles and propositions separately submitted at that
election, including the question of locating the temporary seat of government,
with such changes only as relate to the name and boundary of the proposed
state, to the reapportionment of the judicial and legislative districts, and
such amendments as may be necessary in order to comply with the provisions of
this act; and if a majority of the votes cast on the ratification or rejection
of the Constitution shall be for the Constitution irrespective of the article
separately submitted, the state of South Dakota shall be admitted as a state in
the union under said Constitution as hereinafter provided; but the archives,
records and books of the territory of Dakota shall remain at Bismarck, the
capital of North Dakota, until an agreement in reference thereto is reached by
said states. But if at the election for delegates to the constitutional
convention in South Dakota a majority of all that votes cast at that election
shall be "Against the Sioux Falls Constitution," then, and in that event, it
shall be the duty of the convention which will assemble at the city of Sioux
Falls on the fourth day of July, 1889, to proceed to form a Constitution and
state government as provided in this act the same as if that question had not
been submitted to a vote of the people of South Dakota.
=== Section 6. ===
It shall be the duty of the constitutional conventions of North
Dakota and South Dakota to appoint a joint commission, to be composed of not
less than three members to each convention, whose duty it shall be to assemble
at Bismarck, the present seat of government of said territory, and agree upon
an equitable division of all property belonging to the territory of Dakota, the
disposition of all public records, and also adjust and agree upon the amount of
the debts and liabilities of the territory, which shall be assumed and paid by
each of the proposed states of North Dakota and South Dakota; and the agreement
reached respecting the territorial debts and liabilities shall be incorporated
into the respective Constitutions, and each of said states shall obligate
itself to pay its proportion of such debts and liabilities the same as if they
had been created by such states respectively.
=== Section 7. ===
If the Constitutions formed for both North Dakota and South Dakota
shall be rejected by the people at the elections for the ratification or
rejection of their respective Constitutions as provided for in this act, the
territorial government of Dakota shall continue in existence the same as if
this act had not been passed. But if the Constitution formed for either North
Dakota or South Dakota shall be rejected by the people, that part of the
territory so rejecting its proposed Constitution shall continue under the
territorial government of the present territory of Dakota, but shall, after the
state adopting its Constitution is admitted into the union, be called by the
name of the territory of North Dakota or South Dakota, as the case may be;
provided, that if either of the proposed states provided for in this act shall
reject the Constitution which may be submitted for ratification or rejection at
the election provided therefor, the Governor of the territory in which such
proposed Constitution was rejected shall issue his proclamation reconvening the
delegates ejected to the convention which formed such rejected Constitution,
fixing the time and place at which said delegates shall assemble; and when so
assembled they shall proceed to form another Constitution or to amend the
rejected Constitution, and shall submit such new Constitution or amended
Constitution to the people of the proposed state for ratification or rejection,
at such time as said convention may determine; and all the provisions of this
act, so far as applicable, shall apply to such convention so reassembled and to
the Constitution which may be formed, its ratification or rejection, and to the
admission of the proposed state.
=== Section 8. ===
That the constitutional convention which may assemble in South
Dakota shall provide by ordinance for resubmitting the Sioux Falls Constitution
of 1885, after having amended the same as provided in section 5 of this act, to
the people of South Dakota for ratification or rejection at an election to be
held therein on the first Tuesday in October, 1889; but if said constitutional
convention is authorized and required to form a new Constitution for South
Dakota, it shall provide for submitting the same in like manner to the people
of South Dakota for ratification or rejection, at an election to be held in
said proposed state on the said first Tuesday in October. And the
Constitutional conventions which may assemble in North Dakota, Montana, and
Washington, shall provide in like manner for submitting the Constitutions
formed by them to the people of said proposed states respectively, for
ratification or rejection, at elections to be held in said proposed states on
the first Tuesday in October. At the elections provided for in this section the
qualified voters of said proposed states shall vote directly for or against the
proposed Constitutions, and for or against any articles or propositions
separately submitted. The returns of said elections shall be made to the
secretary of each of said territories, who, with the Governor and chief justice
thereof, or any two of them, shall canvass the same; and if a majority of the
legal votes cast shall be for the Constitution, the Governor shall certify the
result to the president of the United States, together with a statement of the
votes cast thereon and upon separate articles or propositions, and a copy of
the said Constitution, articles, propositions, and ordinances. And if the
Constitutions and governments, of said proposed states are republican in form,
and if all the provisions of this act have been complied with in the formation
thereof, it shall be the duty of the president of the United States to issue
his proclamation announcing the result of the election in each, and thereupon
the proposed states which have adopted Constitutions and formed state
governments, as herein provided, shall be deemed admitted by congress into the
union, under and by virtue of this act, on an equal footing with the original
states from and after the state of said proclamation.
== Adoption of Article ==
An article of the Constitution which received a majority of all the votes cast
upon the question of its adoption and upon the question of the adoption of the
Constitution was legally adopted though it failed to receive a majority of
votes cast for governor. State ex rel. Larabee v. Barnes, [[https://links.casemakerlegal.com/docid/3777349?bookname=public_url&ci=95|3 N.D. 319]], 55 N.W.
883 (1893).
=== Section 9. ===
That until the next general census, or until otherwise provided by
law, said states shall be entitled to one representative in the house of
representatives to the fifty-first Congress, together with the Governors and
other officers provided for in said Constitutions, may be elected on the same
day of the election for the ratification or rejection of the Constitutions; and
until said state officers are elected and qualified under the provisions of
each Constitution and the states, respectively, are admitted into the union,
the territorial officers shall continue to discharge the duties of their
respective offices in each of said territories.
=== Section 10. ===
That upon the admission of each of said states into the union,
sections numbered sixteen and thirty-six in every township of said proposed
states, and where such sections, or any parts thereof, have been sold or
otherwise disposed of by or under the authority of any act of Congress, other
lands equivalent thereto, in legal subdivisions of not less than one-quarter
section, and as contiguous as may be to the section in lieu of which the same
is taken, are hereby granted to said states for the support of common schools,
such indemnity lands to be selected within said states in such manner as the
Legislature may provide, with the approval of the secretary of the interior;
provided, that the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections embraced in permanent
reservations for national purposes shall not, at any time, be subject to the
grant nor to the indemnity provisions of this act, nor shall any lands embraced
in Indian, military or other reservations of any character, be subject to the
grants or to the indemnity provisions of this act until the reservation shall
have been extinguished and such lands be restored to, and become a part of, the
public domain.
== Bankruptcy Act Proceedings. ==
The fact that land being sold under contract to a bankrupt farmer was a part of
the trust funds created by the Enabling Act did not exclude the land from
administration under Bankruptcy Act proceedings. North Dakota v. Hegstad, 134
F.2d 598 (8th Cir. 1943).
A bankrupt whose land is sold to the state on foreclosure of a mortgage
securing a loan of permanent school funds may redeem by payment of the value of
the land as fixed under the provisions of the Federal Bankruptcy Act, even
though for less than the amount required for redemption under state law. North
Dakota v. Towner County, 142 F.2d 48 (8th Cir. 1944).
== Permanent School Fund. ==
The entire grant of land to the state for educational purposes was in trust and
the express terms of the grant required the state as trustee to maintain the
permanency of the funds acquired through the grant. The state is limited to the
use of the interest from the permanent fund and the interest shall be used only
for the support of schools.
State ex rel. Bd. Of Univ. & Sch. Lands v. McMillan,
[[https://links.casemakerlegal.com/docid/2530415?bookname=public_url&ci=95|12 N.D. 280]], 96 N.W. 310 (1903), distinguished,
Lang v. City of Cavalier, [[https://links.casemakerlegal.com/docid/1083924?bookname=public_url&ci=95|59 N.D. 75]], 228 N.W. 819 (1930).
The assembly cannot divert nor authorize diversion of any part of the principal
or interest or income from the investment of funds under the control of the
board of university and school lands arising from the rental or sale of lands
granted by the United States to any purposes other than those for which grants
were made and any diversion to other purposes or any donation thereof in aid of
an individual, by the assembly directly, or by the board of university and
school lands by legislative enactment is unconstitutional. State ex rel. Sathre
v. Board of Univ. & Sch. Lands, [[https://links.casemakerlegal.com/docid/3777356?bookname=public_url&ci=95|65 N.D. 687]], 262 N.W. 60 (1935).
=== Section 11. ===
That all lands granted by this act shall be disposed of only at
public sale after advertising - tillable lands capable of producing
agricultural crops for not less than $10 per acre and lands principally
valuable for grazing purposes for not less than $5 per acre. Any of the said
lands may be exchanged for other lands, public or private, or equal value and
as near as may be of equal area, but if any of the said lands are exchanged
with the United States such exchange shall be limited to Federal lands that are
surveyed, nonmineral, unreserved public lands within the state or are reserved
public lands within the State that are subject to exchange under the laws
governing the administration of such Federal reserved public lands.
All exchanges heretofore made under section 11 of the Act approved February 22,
1889 (25 Stat. 676), as amended by the Act approved May 7, 1932 (47 Stat. 150),
for reserved public lands of the United States that were subject to exchange
under law pursuant to which they were being administered and the requirements
thereof have been met, are hereby approved to the same extent as though the
lands exchanged were unreserved public lands.
The said lands may be leased under such regulations as the legislature may
prescribe.
The state may also, upon such terms as it may prescribe, grant such easements
or rights in any of the lands granted by this act, as may be acquired in
privately owned lands through proceedings in eminent domain: provided, however,
that none of such lands, nor any estate or interest therein, shall ever be
disposed of except in pursuance of general laws providing for such disposition,
nor unless the full market value of the estate or interest disposed of, to be
ascertained in such manner as may be provided by law, has been paid or safely
secured to the state.
With the exception of the lands granted for public buildings, the proceeds from
the sale and other permanent disposition of any of the said lands and from
every part thereof, shall constitute permanent funds for the support and
maintenance of the public schools and the various state institutions for which
the lands have been granted. Rentals on leased land, proceeds from the sale of
timber and other crops, interest on deferred payments on land sold, interest on
funds arising from these lands, and all other actual income, shall be available
for the acquisition and construction of facilities, including the retirement of
bonds authorized by law for such purposes, and for the maintenance and support
of such schools and institutions. Any state may, however, in its discretion,
add a portion of the annual income to the permanent funds. Notwithstanding the
foregoing provisions of this section, each of the states of North Dakota, South
Dakota, and Washington may pool the moneys received by it from oil and gas and
other mineral leasing of said lands. The moneys so pooled shall be apportioned
among the public schools and the various state institutions shall receive an
amount which bears the same ratio to the total amount apportioned as the number
of acres (including any that may have been disposed of) granted for such public
schools or for such institutions bears to the total number of acres (including
any that may have been disposed of) granted by this act. Not less than fifty
per centum of each such amount shall be covered into the appropriate permanent
fund.
The lands hereby granted shall not be subject to pre-emption, homestead entry,
or any other entry under the land laws of the United States whether surveyed or
unsurveyed, but shall be reserved for the purposes for which they have been
granted.
History: As amended by
[[https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/67th-congress/Session%201/c67s1ch61.pdf|Act of August 11, 1921, ch. 61, 42 Stat. 158]];
[[https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/72nd-congress/session-1/c72s1ch172.pdf|Act of May 7, 1932, ch. 172, 47 Stat. 150]];
[[https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/75th-congress/session-3/c75s3ch700.pdf|Act of June 25, 1938, ch. 700, 52 Stat. 1198]];
[[https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/80th-congress/session-2/c80s2ch183.pdf|Act of April 13, 1948, ch. 183, 62 Stat. 170]];
[[https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-66/pdf/STATUTE-66-Pg283.pdf|Act of June 28, 1952, ch. 480, 66 Stat. 283]];
[[https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-81/pdf/STATUTE-81-Pg106.pdf|Act of June 30, 1967, Public Law 90-41, 81 Stat. 106]];
[[https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-84/pdf/STATUTE-84-Pg987.pdf|Act of October 16, 1970, Public Law 91-463, 84 Stat. 987]].
== Condemnation of School Lands. ==
Where a state statute relating to the condemnation of right of way by the state
highway commission contemplates that title to lands shall be acquired, such
procedure cannot be resorted to acquire school land granted to the state. State
Hwy. Comm'n v. State, [[https://links.casemakerlegal.com/docid/3777362?bookname=public_url&ci=95|70 N. D. 673]], 297 N.W. 194 (1940).
== Oil and Gas Leases ==
Under the Enabling Act, as amended, the state has full power to provide for the
execution of oil and gas leases on school and university lands. State ex rel.
Rausch v. Amerada Petro. Corp., [[https://links.casemakerlegal.com/docid/1329043?bookname=public_url&ci=95|78 N.D. 247]], 49 N.W.2d 14 (1951).
== Taxation ==
When a contract for the sale of school land is canceled, the land reverts to
the state, and no interest in the land is subject to taxation until a resale or
redemption is made. Upon reversion of the land to the state, all unpaid taxes
levied thereon are canceled. State v. Towner County, [[https://links.casemakerlegal.com/docid/3777360?bookname=public_url&ci=95|68 N.D. 629]], 283 N.W. 63
(1938).
=== Section 12. ===
That upon the admission of each of said states into the union, in
accordance with the provisions of this act, fifty sections of the
unappropriated public lands within said states, to be selected and located in
legal subdivisions as provided in section 10 of this act, shall be, and are
hereby granted to said states for public buildings at the capital of said
states for legislative, executive, and judicial purposes, including
construction, reconstruction, repair, renovation, furnishings, equipment, and
any other permanent improvement of such buildings, and the acquisition of
necessary land for such buildings, and the payment of principal and interest on
bonds issued for any of the above purposes.
=== Section 13. ===
That five per centum of the proceeds of the sales of public lands
lying within said states which shall be sold by the United States subsequent to
the admission of said states into the union, after deducting all the expenses
incident to the same, shall be paid to the said states, to be used as a
permanent fund, the interest of which only shall be expended for the support of
the common schools within said states, respectively.
=== Section 14. ===
That the lands granted to the territories of Dakota and Montana by
the Act of February 18, 1881, entitled "An Act to grant lands to Dakota,
Montana, Arizona, Idaho, and Wyoming for university purposes," are hereby
vested in the states of South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana respectively,
if such states are admitted into the union as provided in this act, to the
extent of the full quantity of seventy-two sections to each of said states, and
any portion of said lands that may not have been selected by either of said
territories of Dakota or Montana may be selected by the respective states
aforesaid; but said Act of February 18, 1881, shall be so amended as to provide
that none of said lands shall be sold for less than $10 per acre, and the
proceeds shall constitute a permanent fund to be safely invested and held by
said states severally, and the income thereof be used exclusively for
university purposes. And such quantity of the lands authorized by the fourth
section of the Act of July 17, 1854, to be reserved for university purposes in
the territory of Washington, as together with the lands confirmed to the
vendees of the territory by the Act of March 14, 1864, will make the full
quantity of seventy- two entire sections, are hereby granted in like manner to
the state of Washington for the purposes of a university in said state. None of
the lands granted in this section shall be sold at less than $10 per acre; but
said lands may be leased in the same manner as provided in section 11 of this
act. The schools, colleges and universities provided for in this act shall
forever remain under the exclusive control of the said states, respectively,
and no part of the proceeds arising from the sale or disposal of any lands
herein granted for educational purposes shall be used for the support of any
secretarian or denominational school, college, or university. The section of
land granted by the Act of June 16, 1880, to the territory of Dakota, for an
asylum for the insane shall, upon the admission of said state of South Dakota
into the union, become the property of said state.
=== Section 15. ===
That so much of the land belonging to the United States as have
been acquired and set apart for the purpose mentioned in "An act appropriating
money for the erection of a penitentiary in the territory of Dakota," approved
March 2, 1881, together with the buildings thereon, be, and the same is hereby
granted, together with any unexpended balances of the money appropriated
therefor by said act, to said state of South Dakota, for the purposes therein
designated; and the states of North Dakota and Washington shall, respectively,
have like grants for the same purpose, and subject to like terms and conditions
as provided in said Act of March 2, 1881, for the territory of Dakota. The
penitentiary at Deer Lodge City, Montana, and all lands connected therewith and
set apart and reserved therefor, are hereby granted to the state of Montana.
=== Section 16. ===
That ninety thousand acres of land, to be selected and located as
provided in section 10 of this act, are hereby granted to each of said states
except to the state of South Dakota, to which one hundred twenty thousand acres
are granted for the use and support of agricultural colleges in said states, as
provided in the acts of Congress making donations of lands for such purposes.
=== Section 17. ===
That in lieu of the grant of land for purposes of internal
improvement made to new states by the eighth section of the Act of September 4,
1841, which act is hereby repealed as to the states provided for by this act,
and in lieu of any claim or demand by the said states, or either of them, under
the Act of September 28, 1850, and section 2479 of the Revised Statutes, making
a grant of swamp and overflowed lands to certain states, which grant it is
hereby declared is not extended to the states provided for in this act, and in
lieu of any grant of saline lands to said states, the following grants of land
are hereby made, to wit:
To the state of South Dakota: For the school of mines, forty thousand acres;
for the reform school, forty thousand acres; for the deaf and dumb asylum,
forty thousand acres; for the agricultural college, forty thousand acres; for
the university, forty thousand acres; for state normal school, eighty thousand
acres; for public buildings at the capital of said state, fifty thousand acres,
and for such other educational and charitable purposes as the Legislature of
said state may determine, one hundred seventy thousand acres; in all, five
hundred thousand acres.
To the state of North Dakota a like quantity of land as is in this section
granted to the state of South Dakota, and to be for like purposes, and in like
proportion as far as practicable.
To the state of Montana: For the establishment and maintenance of a school of
mines, one hundred thousand acres; for state normal schools, one hundred
thousand acres; for agricultural colleges, in addition to the grant
hereinbefore made for that purpose, fifty thousand acres; for the establishment
of a state reform school, fifty thousand acres; for the establishment of a deaf
and dumb asylum, fifty thousand acres; for public buildings at the capital of
the state, in addition to the grant hereinbefore made for that purpose, one
hundred fifty thousand acres.
To the state of Washington: For the establishment and maintenance of a
scientific school, one hundred thousand acres; for state normal schools, one
hundred thousand acres; for public buildings at the state capital in addition
to the grant hereinbefore made for that purpose, one hundred thousand acres;
for state, charitable, educational, penal, and reformatory institutions, two
hundred thousand acres.
That the states provided for in this act shall not be entitled to any further
or other grants of land for any purpose than as expressly provided in this act.
And the lands granted by this section shall be held, appropriated, and disposed
of exclusively for the purposes herein mentioned, in such manner as the
legislatures of the respective states may severally provide.
== In General. ==
The power to determine the manner of the use of public lands granted by the
Enabling Act is purely legislative and cannot be delegated to a commission.
State ex rel. Rusk v. Budge, [[https://links.casemakerlegal.com/docid/3777334?bookname=public_url&ci=95|14 N.D. 532]], 105 N.W. 724 (1905), distinguished,
More v. Western Grain Co., [[https://links.casemakerlegal.com/docid/3777335?bookname=public_url&ci=95|37 N.D. 547]], 164 N.W. 294 (1917).
== Charitable Purposes. ==
The words "charitable purposes" should be construed in a broad, and not limited
meaning, to include acts of public benefaction which are done for public
purposes, as well as mere almsgiving or benefaction to the poor, and, as so
construed, the section authorizes the maintenance of an institution which shall
care for all classes of aged and infirm soldiers, irrespective of their
monetary worth. State ex rel. Skeffington v. Seigfried, 40 N.D. 57, 168 N.W. 62
(1918).
== Governor's Residence. ==
The erection of a resident for the governor at the capital is within the
purposes of the grant of land made by congress to the state for public
buildings at the capital under the Enabling Act. State ex rel. Rusk v. Budge,
[[https://links.casemakerlegal.com/docid/3777334?bookname=public_url&ci=95|14 N.D. 532]], 105 N.W. 724 (1905), distinguished, More v. Western Grain Co., [[https://links.casemakerlegal.com/docid/3777335?bookname=public_url&ci=95|37 N.D. 547]], 164 N.W. 294 (1917).
== Limitation on Legislative Disposal of Lands. ==
The Montana legislature must act in subordination to the state Constitution in
executing the authority entrusted to it in section 17 of the Enabling Act.
Montana ex rel. Haire v. Rice, [[https://courtlistener.com/c/U.S./204/291/|204 U.S. 291]], 27 S. Ct. 281, 51 L. Ed. 490
(1907).
=== Section 18. ===
That all mineral lands shall be exempted from the grants made by
this act. But if sections sixteen and thirty-six, or any subdivision or portion
of any smallest subdivision thereof in any township shall be found by the
department of the interior to be mineral lands, said states are hereby
authorized and empowered to select, in legal subdivisions, an equal quantity of
other unappropriated lands in said states, in lieu thereof, for the use and
benefit of the common schools of said states.
=== Section 19. ===
That all lands granted in quantity or as indemnity by this act
shall be selected, under the direction of the secretary of the interior, from
the surveyed, unreserved, and unappropriated public lands of the United States
within the limits of the respective states entitled thereto. And there shall be
deducted from the number of acres of land donated by this act for specific
objects to said states the number of acres in each heretofore donated by
Congress to said territories for similar objects.
=== Section 20. ===
That the sum of twenty thousand dollars or so much thereof as may
be necessary, is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the treasury not
otherwise appropriated, to each of said territories for defraying the expenses
of the said conventions, except to Dakota for which the sum of forty thousand
dollars is so appropriated, twenty thousand dollars each for South Dakota and
North Dakota, and for the payment of the members thereof, under the same rules
and regulations and at the same rates as are now provided by law for the
payment of the territorial legislatures. Any money hereby appropriated not
necessary for such purpose shall be covered into the treasury of the United
States.
=== Section 21. ===
That each of said states, when admitted as aforesaid, shall
constitute one judicial district, the names thereof to be the same as the names
of the states, respectively; and the circuit and district courts thereof shall
be held at the capital of such state for the time being, and each of said
districts shall, for judicial purposes, until otherwise provided, be attached
to the eighth judicial circuit, except Washington and Montana, which shall be
attached to the ninth judicial circuit. There shall be appointed for each of
said districts one district judge, one United States attorney and one United
States marshal. The judge of each of said districts shall receive a yearly
salary of three thousand five hundred dollars payable in four equal
installments, on the first days of January, April, July, and October of each
year, and shall reside in the district. There shall be appointed clerks of
said courts in each district, who shall keep their offices at the capital of
said state. The regular terms of said courts shall be held in each district, at
the place aforesaid on the first Monday in April and the first Monday in
November of each year, and only one grand jury and one petit jury shall be
summoned in both said circuit and district courts. The circuit and district
courts for each of said districts and the judges thereof, respectively, shall
possess the same powers and jurisdiction, and perform the same duties required
to be performed by the other circuit and district courts and judges of the
United States, and shall be governed by the same laws and regulations. The
marshal, district attorney, and clerks of the circuit and district courts of
each of said districts, and all other officers and persons performing duties in
the administration of justice therein, shall severally possess the powers and
perform the duties lawfully possessed and required to be performed by similar
officers in other districts of the United States; and shall, for the services
they may perform, receive the fees and compensation allowed by law to other
similar officers and persons performing similar duties in the state of
Nebraska.]
=== Section 22. ===
That all cases of appeal or writ of error heretofore prosecuted and
now pending in the Supreme Court of the United States upon any record from the
Supreme Court of either of the territories mentioned in this act, or that may
hereafter lawfully be prosecuted upon any record from either of said courts,
may be heard and determined by said Supreme Court of the United States. And the
mandate of execution or of further proceedings shall be directed by the Supreme
Court of the United States to the circuit or district court hereby established
within the state succeeding the territory from which such record is or may be
pending, or to the Supreme Court of such state, as the nature of the case may
require; provided, that the mandate of execution or of further proceedings
shall, in cases arising in the territory of Dakota, be directed by the Supreme
Court of the United States to the circuit or district court of the district of
South Dakota, or to the Supreme Court of the state of South Dakota, or to the
circuit or district court of the district of North Dakota, or to the Supreme
Court of the state of North Dakota, or to the Supreme Court of the territory of
North Dakota, as the nature of the case may require. And each of the circuit,
district, and state courts, herein named, shall, respectively, be the successor
of the Supreme Court of the territory, as to all such cases arising within the
limits embraced within the jurisdiction of such courts respectively, with full
power to proceed with the same, and award mesne or final process therein; and
that from all judgments and decrees of the Supreme Court of either of the
territories mentioned in this act, in any case arising within the limits of any
of the proposed states prior to admission, the parties to such judgment shall
have the same right to prosecute appeals and writs of error to the Supreme
Court of the United States as they shall have had by law prior to the admission
of said state into the union.
=== Section 23. ===
That in respect to all cases, proceedings, and matters now pending
in the Supreme or district Courts of either of the territories mentioned in
this act at the time of the admission into the union of either of the states
mentioned in this act, and arising within the limits of any such state, whereof
the circuit or district courts by this act established might have had
jurisdiction under the laws of the United States had such courts existed at the
time of the commencement of such cases, the said circuit and district courts,
respectively, shall be the successors of said Supreme and district Courts of
said territory; and in respect to all other cases, proceedings and matters
pending in the Supreme or district Courts of any of the territories mentioned
in this act at the time of the admission of such territory into the union,
arising within the limits of said proposed state, the courts established by
such state shall, respectively, be the successors of said Supreme and district
territorial Courts; and all the files, records, indictments, and proceedings
relating to any such cases, shall be transferred to such circuit, district, and
state courts, respectively, and the same shall be proceeded with therein in due
courts of law; but no writ, action, indictment, cause, or proceeding now
pending, or that prior to the admission of any of the states mentioned in this
act, shall be pending in any territorial court in any of the territories
mentioned in this act, shall abate by the admission of any such state into the
union, but the same shall be transferred and proceeded with, in the proper
United States circuit, district, or state court, as the case may be; provided,
however, that in all civil actions, causes, and proceedings, in which the
United States is not a party, transfers shall not be made to the circuit and
district courts of the United States except upon written request of one of the
parties to such action or proceeding filed in the proper court; and in the
absence of such request, such cases shall be proceeded with in the proper state
courts.
=== Section 24. ===
That the constitutional conventions may, by ordinance, provide for
the election of officers for full state governments, including members of the
Legislatures and representatives in the fifty-first Congress; and said state
governments shall remain in abeyance until the states shall be admitted into
the union, respectively, as provided in this act. In case the Constitution of
any of said proposed states shall be ratified by the people, but not otherwise,
the Legislature thereof may assemble, organize, and elect two senators of the
United States, and the Governor and secretary of state of such proposed state
shall certify the election of the senators and representatives in the manner
required by law; and when such state is admitted into the union, the senators
and representatives shall be entitled to be admitted to seats in Congress, and
to all the rights and privileges of senators and representatives of other
states in the Congress of the United States; and the officers of the state
governments formed in pursuance of said Constitutions, as provided by the
constitutional conventions, shall proceed to exercise all the functions of such
state officers; and all laws in force made by said territories, at the time of
their admission into the union, shall be in force in said states, except as
modified or changed by this act, or by the Constitutions of the states,
respectively.
=== Section 25. ===
That all acts or parts of acts in conflict with the provisions of
this act, whether passed by the Legislatures of said territories or by
Congress, are hereby repealed.
=== Section 26. North Dakota Trust Funds. ===
(a) DISPOSITION. - Notwithstanding section 11, the State of North Dakota shall,
with respect to any trust fund in which proceeds from the sale of public land
are deposited under this Act (referred to in this section as the 'trust fund')
-
(1) deposit all revenues earned by a trust fund into the trust fund;
(2) deduct the costs of administering a trust fund from each trust fund; and
(3) manage each trust fund to -
(A) preserve the purchasing power of the trust fund; and
(B) maintain stable distributions to trust fund beneficiaries.
(b) DISTRIBUTIONS. - Notwithstanding section 11, any distributions from trust
funds in the State of North Dakota shall be made in accordance with section 2
of article IX of the Constitution of the State of North Dakota.
(c) MANAGEMENT OF PROCEEDS. - Notwithstanding section 13, the State of North
Dakota shall manage the proceeds referred to in that section in accordance with
subsections (a) and (b).
(d) MANAGEMENT OF LAND AND PROCEEDS. - Notwithstanding sections 14 and 16, the
State of North Dakota shall manage the land granted under that section,
including any proceeds from the land, and make distributions in accordance with
subsections (a) and (b).